How Real Are The James Webb Space Telescope Images?

What does space really look like to the naked eye? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice break down what space looks like to us, the colors we see, and how telescopes like JWST help us explore the cosmos.
Is space really that colorful? Learn about the human eye, ROYGBIV, and what colors our eyes see. How do you make a color image from infrared light that we can’t see? What would the JWST picture of the Carina Nebula look like to the naked eye? And, finally, how do these color images help us do science?
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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
#StarTalk #neildegrassetyson
00:00 - Is Space Colorful?
00:32 - The Colors Humans See
3:32 - Making Images Out of Infrared Light
5:18 - Are Space Images Fake?
9:19 - How Color Images Help Science
10:59 - A Philosophical Point About Color

[@StarTalk]

Which space telescope image is your favorite? 🔭✨

[@alexhidell663]

Pluto!!!

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

All of them but I do have a blow up portrait of the Andromeda galaxy.

[@shelly_lee]

cat's eye, love that picture. sorry, that image.

[@JordanVargas-bz6ym]

sumbrero galaxy by far lol

[@drunkentriloquist9993]

Okey Chuck the color of a fart😂

[@chalkiememe4183]

I am in absolute awe by the amount of knowledge and information Neil has in his head. I love how he explains things. At nearly 60 I am learning so much and found a new interest in space. Love Star Talk.

[@genem2768]

Fellow "nearly 60" (next month actually) person here. What's equally impressive is that he is totally comfortable saying "I don't know." When he has guests on Star Talk that have expertise and knowledge that he doesn't, he asks questions and learns along with us. Big nod to Chuck too. He asks brilliant questions and has learned a ton doing this show. He also cracks me up!

[@teamtaka7]

@@genem2768that’s because no one person knows everything. Learning doesn’t have a destination.

[@Derfboy]

I'm colorblind so I just see whatever my brain decides it is and it's still beautiful for me.

[@emilypurdy2097]

Colorblindness is not when you pick what color you see You may have some form of synesthesia or a new undiscovered condition

[@empyrean196]

@@emilypurdy2097- And colorblindness is not brain related, it’s the eye lacking a third cone.

[@uncharted7againblackking256]

Hmmm ​@@empyrean196

[@renobgm]

​@@empyrean196it can be either

[@meatdog]

As a former astronomy prof, I taught astrophotography. Neil, you know we used to stack our negatives to get the colors in our photos. Now with digital technology we can still get color through the filters used and the spectral analysis.

[@User-jr7vf]

I'm not sure I understand the process correctly. So you split the infrared spectrum into three bands, and assign to each band one of our three RGB bands?

[@madb132]

@@User-jr7vf You would use a mono camera with three different filters, Hydrogen-Alpha, Sulphur II & Oxygen III, you would take as many hours of pictures with each filter. With a colour camera, it's much easier as you don't need as much data and less swapping of filters,(1 hour of 2 minute subs and you should have a nice picture) but the mono camera is far the superior for data collecting and detail.👍

[@ajk2749]

I love Chuck's "Happy Nebula" comment!

[@UnitasPhotography]

As a commercial photographer this is one of the best and easiest explanations that the layman can follow. So awesome to have a science communicator that can break complex processes into an easy to comprehend format.

[@prinkisdead]

chuck is like that little kid that always has that one friend that’s a bit older constantly explaining life to them and he just goes along and agrees with everything 😂

[@brianjones6500]

This explainer is fantastic. I already had an understanding that people colored the imagery but this video pulls back the curtain to reveal the understanding of how it's done. Thank you.

[@anacantinho]

I am learning to paint. In pigments we have raw and burnt Sienna as raw and burnt umber. From what I've learnt they roast the natural pigments to get to the burnt tones, hence the name

[@Rentokilolexusaicuxg]

❤

[@EricRoss57]

"Stellar nursery"! Love it!

[@jeffswope1511]

Damn, you guys got me again I accidentally learned something. made me love my telescope, even more

[@iwayansuandi]

This is how teachers should explain science, I bet it will get more students excited 🔥

[@user-jo2xe5uf4h]

Yup. But get ready to pay them much higher as well

[@iwayansuandi]

@user-jo2xe5uf4h yes, I agree with that too. They deserve more attention as well.

[@seansmith5826]

Some do at an age appropriate level. It's still hard work as most do not appreciate the knowledge being shared.

[@Bruss813]

The people that dislike science would dislike this video. People who are intellectual curios will watch and enjoy this video.

[@KC-nd7nt]

Sure would be intersting to see an image of our local planet from a distance with a james webb infrared style scope

[@User-jr7vf]

It is possible to produce that image, if you pick a picture of our planet (in visible light), then convert it to infrared, then reconvert to visible light by the same assigning that they do in spectroscopy.

[@rangerCG]

These exist of many of the planets! Google Image search "James Webb" and then the name of a planet, like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranis, etc

[@DrVonJay]

@@User-jr7vfhow would you convert to true infrared if you don’t have the true infrared signature of the earth? Sure you could extrapolate it infer what it must look like, but I’m not sure you’d capture where, when and or how infrared is presented in certain areas.

[@AaronENichols80]

Y’all are an awesome duo! This episode makes me appreciate the science in the space photos. Looking forward to the next StarTalk!

[@cheapskatepanic]

I was so interested in this topic. Thanks for covering this❤❤

[@High-Tech-Geek]

Thank you for clarifying the difference between color shifting and false color. Just the right amount of detail.

[@j.burton5220]

I didn't know most of what you explained, so thanks! Very helpful in kind of a mauve way.

[@timothyvenable3336]

Instead of “shifted” colors, we could think of it as “translated”. Like we have different languages but say the same thing (mostly)

[@timhyatt9185]

think of it like music. if you change the key signature of a piece of music, it preserves the arraignment, spacing, relation of all the notes, just gives them a new sound. putting color to an infrared image, does the same sort of thing. The relationship between the various pixels is preserved, they just get assigned a "color note" that falls in the visible range, so we can view it and make sense of it.

[@chinossynthesizer705]

​@@timhyatt9185.this of it as changes the sound and giving it color like synthesizers.

[@sudipchatterjee]

It's fascinating to know how much information simple light can give us! Kudos to those people who interpret and contextualize them!

[@dawnhansen7886]

Educational Entertainment to the MAX ❤ I LOVE StarTalk ❗️

[@heatherlundquist-buffalo]

Thank you for this explanation ❤

[@user-xh2fg4wo7j]

This is the exact explainer that I have wanted! I always wondered if those beautiful images by the JWST showed the actual colors. Thank you so much for bringing this topic on! Arigatou as always !

[@hannahgiza1992]

Thank you SO much for this video! I remember when I was a kid I was so disappointed when I found out the colors in telescope photos were “fake” because we couldn’t actually “see” them. Thank you!! 🙏 😊 can I just listen to you all day Neil?

[@SwampyColorado420]

Chuck makes this worth watching. Such a lovable guy.

[@dabajabaza111]

Great video. Big fan of the slightly more minimal editing.

[@JuanCarlosDaSilva]

Even explaining Chuck's jokes with images is great, specially for those who don't live in the US. Keep up the good work.

[@jamiboothe]

One more interesting fact about narrow band filters, they will filter out most light pollution if you live in a congested city. You can actually do excellent astrophotography from your back yard, using narrow band filters, Most nebulas are emission nebula, or absorption nebula, and choosing the correct filters for the object will yield fantastic results.

[@user-ce8lr3ff6v]

Thanks for your time in producing this content. Molecules generating light or reflecting light? Telling what a star is fusing is one thing, spectroscopy of a dust cloud would be something else in my mind. Will helium refract specific wave lengths regardless of the source wave length?

[@philippwanko8279]

I love the chemistry between those two and learning something is nice as well! :)

[@TraumaQueen65]

I swear, I have more fun listen to these gentlemen than anywhere else

[@charlessukati4866]

Fantastic explanation ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉

[@jag731]

Color and "false color" as explained here are useful. We can definitely relate to a weather radar image, satellite imagery or some sort of "threat level" chart depicting color based on say ... intensity, or risk. Very useful for detailing data and public-consumption friendly. UNTIL - and I found this out doing meteorological volunteer work - when someone is color blind. Granted, there are corrective lenses, but alas, while the use of color is a grand benefit, it does have drawbacks for those with color blindness. Alas, though, and as always, a great explainer!

[@user-qb5yb5rl1p]

Thank you for always educating us. Really enjoy how you make it easier to learn all this. You two need to have your own half hour educational TV show. Chuck's humor and yours has me smiling an laughing. Thank you for making learning fun and enjoyable .

[@frankbarnwell____]

Fuji's Reala film in the 80s and 90s had 4 color sensitive emulsions. Very excellent nature and landscape film.

[@markpashia7067]

CYMK if memory serves me. Adobe photography manipulating software had the ability to work in either spectrum. RGB was actually used less for print purposes in professional work. Later they developed a new one called sRBG which had different emphasis and results due to more color combinations in between shades thus "truer" color.

[@mrlucky5025]

@@markpashia7067 Just an FYI. CYMK is Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and blacK. Used for producing a color print from a negative. CYM are the complimentary colors of RGB. Black is necessary to obtain a truer image.

[@markpashia7067]

@@mrlucky5025 Thanks. I use to know all of that but have not worked with it in thirty years so memory slipped a little.

[@user-sr8hs1ix4u]

Still laugh my head off, when Joe rogan was telling Neil that he should be taking note of what people experience on a dmt trip😂😂

[@Alex-wh3zw]

So well explained.

[@cyberwolf6667]

Is that a new globe behind Dr.Tyson? I want one!

[@Reseng0411]

Cool explanation guys. Superb

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

Has anyone else tried to imagine what it would be like to see the entire electromagnetic spectrum all at once like Geordi LaForge from Star Trek TNG?

[@BenjySparky]

Neil and Chuck, y'all rock! Love the channel and content. Peace 🤘 💥 ✌️

[@mariahiggins-burke4295]

Fabulous!!!

[@thedirtyridge]

Awesome. We do this with weather satellites, and it helps us detect and then forecast hazards.

[@koreyhelms6857]

My favorite show I work 5 days a week 16 hours a day and I can't stop watching stay tuned and continue to keep looking knowledge is power

[@TheJasonBorn]

What job do you have?

[@blvdes]

​@@TheJasonBorn who tf asks a stranger that question on KZbin lmao??? what would you possibly do with that information? 😭

[@joppadoni]

Great vid!

[@stevendigiantomasso3985]

Thank you !

[@bassface876]

Omg thanks for this, I'm always trying to explain this to people who think all space photos are fake. Now I can just link them to this video, lol. The weather example will be especially useful in these conversations.

[@buttcube6085]

We already knew scientists were mapping actual wavelengths to colors. But if I'm not a scientist and just want to appreciate the natural beauty of something, I'd like to see it without highlighter smeared all over it.

[@bassface876]

@@buttcube6085 yeah I knew as well, I'm into astrophotography. If I'm not mistaken nasa and other agencies post the raw images for people to practice processing if your curious to see what they look like, just gotta make sure it's from something like hubble that takes photos in visible light.

[@LoLo-hd4tz]

Loved this!

[@fishstix4209]

0:31 for a second, I thought Chuck was pulling out the old Disney "the spectrum song" and it unlocked some childhood memories.

[@user-hn1di1xb3e]

Chuck and you make learning fun. Chucks' humor and you laughing.

[@Jethro420]

i would love to see Bob Ross paint a happy little nebula

[@petersage5157]

How many colors would a woodchuck see in infrared if a woodchuck could see colors in infrared? Now, let's talk about Neptune and _The Devil Wears Prada._ "It's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean." All joking aside, I'd love to see Dr. Becky (perhaps the only person alive who cares about astrophysics and would cite that film quip in reference to the color of Neptune) as a guest on StarTalk. She's still deep in the academia and would breathe some fresh life into the astrophysics side of this program.

[@jamesleatherwood5125]

The fact that james webb can resolve individual stars in closer galaxies, no matter what the spectrum, is absolutely amazing.

[@purpleandjodeci]

Love me a Star talk

[@waynearnold1072]

Explanation of things. Please explain time. Why do we say time passes slower or faster depending on your location and/or movement within the universe? Could it be that it's just the measurement of time is different? Scenario: Calculate a future spot in earth's movement through the solar system and pinpoint it. Now pick three spots within the universe to observe the earth's movement until it reaches the calculated spot. Observation location 1 is NIST laboratory in Boulder Colorado. Observation location 2 is our moon. Observation location 3 is an orbit around the sun at near light speed. Now have all 3 observation locations start recording the passing of time at exactly the same time. All three observation loctions would stop the time recording when the earth landed on its previously calculated spot. Would it be illogical to say that the physical amount of time passed for each observation location would be the same? Could it be that the recording device used to record the passing of time showed differently, but the physical amount of time would be the same for all 3 observation locations? Does it seem reasonable that what we need is a way to record time with a device that can account for its location and movement within the universe, so that the recording of time passing is equal on all accounts? The earth will move through the solar system and reach its calculated spot in the future in its due time. It won't be early and it won't be late. It will be right on time according to the calculation. Why would we say the passing of time is different for the 3 observation locations?

[@MrLenroc82]

4:59 I manufacture Beseler camera equipment....absolutely correct about those 3 lenses creating all the colors

[@gewoon.dietrich]

The Iris of an eye is like aperture of an SLR camera. Nice example of how many things are based on the anatomy of humans and animals. Loved this episode

[@deenawashington369]

I love this!

[@iacovcoc4031]

Nice one

[@willrose5424]

Best topic so far. 🤑🎨 I see you

[@lazetochekjaja7450]

Enjoyed

[@getsmokedgaming7175]

Hey big fan! Question though sir.. can you make a video on our atoms. I specifically would like to know the science between us “never touching anything” and how fingerprints still transfer from us to an object

[@thomasrutledge5941]

I like broad spectrums & I cannot lie.

[@philarmstrong3765]

LOL!

[@a.j.infowars7582]

The Broad spectrum is my favorite Color ❤️!

[@williepierce1368]

This is what education looks like.

[@casperastronomy]

That's the one thing, that I was always thinking about when I was younger!

[@markpashia7067]

What amazed me a few years ago was that my daughter had a house where the siding was painted a color. We had a hard time discussing that siding and a miscommunication due to the fact that I saw a drab green but she saw it as a shade of grey. It really confuses things when we see them different colors but it happens all the time. I suspect it even happens with other things than colors. Our senses are individual to us. Not sure which of us is somewhat color blind but obviously one of us is.

[@Kinann]

Best example of comparing it to weather radar, great way to give an example to people that might think otherwise.

[@RioDante-nk5ku]

Love you chuck , you make me always laugh and always love you Neil

[@emorsi]

You can clearly see here that Neil is not only a scientist but a teacher as well. You can be a brilliant scientist, that doesn't mean that you can teach. For this it has to be both. And lets not forget that he is an entertainer on top of it. That's a rare combination here.

[@MY-my007]

Love it

[@LogansAstro]

Next time someone asks me how I get the colour and the detail in my astrophotography pictures or says "that's just AI", I'm going to point them to this video. Excellently explained.

[@Cal3000]

You can just explain to them how their cell phone camera works. It's just RGB photo receptors that take in a certain voltage and translates that voltage to a digital image. Digital cell phone camera's work similar to the telescope in translating data.

[@jeffdingle9677]

Cones and rods of the eye's retina senses RGB in our normal vision and that's why some people have irregularities with seeing red and green and other colors - color-blindness...

[@Zurpanik]

What would their actual visible light colors be? Is there a way to find out? If we were instead only a light year or half a light year from them (or whatever distance is required to start to collect the light where it hasn't redshifted into the infrared yet), what visible light spectrum colors would they have? We would be able to see them wouldn't we, the closer we got? Appreciate any thoughts on this! A big question of mine I haven't thought about in a while!

[@annamatlock2622]

just wanna say i just watched the matpat film theory rick and morty episode you were in and you seem so cool and you’ve like doubled in subscribers and i love that. will be watching this channel soon !

[@zackeryroper]

Nice!

[@shwetasharma154]

REQUEST TO NEIL TYSON- 🛰🚀🛸🌠🌌☀️☄️🔭 Sir pls make one video on observational astronomy for beginners i.e how to identify constellations,inclunation angles telescope and subtfeld of astronomy like- theoretical astrophysics, cosmology,radio astrophysics, computational astrophysics, etc. I watch your videos from india.Pls reply as i dont know how to start with observations. 🇮🇳🇮🇳 🇮🇳🇮🇳 Thanks&Regards Aditya, High school student &star talk fan

[@ftorres108]

Question, how do you know if you are indeed using the correct filter. Is it possible to get different colors with different filters.

[@Luftbubblan]

This is just one aspect of it. You can take color pictures in broadband with a regular camera / regular spectrum as well, to bad this is not mentioned, might make ppl think its not possible. Broadband / narrowband / uv and ir, all can be used!

[@CryionelPessi69]

I looked forward to the topic of this video and 5 seconds in I see Neil Degrass Tyson. I'll go found another similar 1

[@saganandroid4175]

Fuji sensors have an additional "pixel" that's another shade of green. Meaning it has about 2x as many gradients of green. Which is why Fuji looks so nice.

[@therelaxationlady893]

Sing A Rainbow! Captain Noah, baby, and his magical Arc. IYKYK❤❤❤

[@TraceyIsNotMaryGrace]

So say we were able to go into space and see the the things that were photographed, up close. What we would see is the colored version of the photos, but we’re just seeing it differently in the telescope because of all the other light sources effecting it? Please correct me if I’m wrong because I’d really like to understand this.

[@sheariley1910]

Charlie Murphy! Also, I love burnt sienna; especially on cars.

[@genuinefreewilly5706]

Quality art materials are usually coded by the material or mineral that makes that colour and the way they are ground. Also the material of paper and canvas, makes a huge difference Creating the darkest deepest black is probably the most difficult. Still a fan of film photography and fine art. There isn't anything striking about a digital image on a monitor

[@assaultflamingo2.068]

I think the thing that disappoints people about filtering or shifting colours, is that if you can imagine a time in the future when we're out there in the stars exploring the galaxy like Captain Kirk on the Enterprise, most of it won't look anywhere near as beautiful... At least in the visually vibrant way, still beautiful in it's own right. Unless we're all wearing some full spectrum glasses, or body/genetic manipulation to visualise the whole spectrum by that point.

[@caseycopeland626]

Since the sky is black, but it looks blue from earth, it’d be funny if a black hole was really blue inside, but looked black from outside.

[@dannyswayze2133]

Our sky appears blue in the daytime because of Rayleigh scattering of sunlight. No light is scattered in a black hole. Derp

[@caseycopeland626]

@@dannyswayze2133 I know you’re right. it was just a funny thought, not an actual possibility.

[@Babynate1000]

The assertion disk around black holes are actually blue

[@philarmstrong3765]

@@caseycopeland626 Some people lack any sense of whimsy whatsoever.

[@joelrichmond3248]

@@Babynate1000accretion disk?

[@seb_gibbs]

a lot of camera sensors have double green. Do give much better image replication, what they really should do have the 4th tile filtered like rods, which is not too far different from the green part of the spectrum. When cameras, TV, monitors start working like this, the images would then become much more realistic.

[@MartynSmith]

Mind-blowing - Colour is a learnt perception - You are told when you are little grass is green, so you know what the colour green is But what happens if your brain gets it wrong, and when you look at green, your brain shows you purple. You will never know whenever you see purple. You know it as green. So some people could be walking around in a very different coloured world!

[@tomfromoz8527]

I suppose this is why crayons have the colour printed on the label. *Pam* {Tom's wife}

[@1981TEDDYB]

You never know what others see it as

[@podiatanapraia]

So here's something I was wondering: why was the cooling system on JWST, with the heat shield and everything, designed so differently (and apparently so much more complex) than that used on Spitzer? What made the heat shield necessary for JWST, if Spitzer didn't need one?

[@NetraAmorosi]

I mean if we could legit see the infrared spectrum, i mean had the additional cones and such needed for it. The actual view and heck our entire view of the surrounding world would almost certainly be insanely different then what we currently experience. No telling just how many additional colors would be found in it. Nevermind the additional colors in the other bans of light and how they would interplay with each other and the colors we do see. The world is most certainly is a more vibrant place then we can perceive or dream.

[@DSOImager]

This doesn't apply only to JWST. It works with narrowband filters in the visual spectrum, so this also applies telescopes like Hubble and even little amateur astrophotography rigs. In fact, collecting narrowband data using filters that collect the light from Sii, Ha, and Oiii, and place them in the same order as they line up on the visual spectrum produces a color palette known as the "Hubble Palette". The famous "Pillars of Creation" image uses this technique. I've been calling my narrowband images "false color" images but it looks like I've been using that term incorrectly. What should I tell people other than saying its "narrowband"? Call it the "Shifted Palette"?

[@tonynasaofficial]

What I be watching when im on break! c:

[@terryengel3554]

Constantly in motion and change shapes energies direction and of course luminosity

[@bryanalmodovar9804]

this makes me think of the movie National Treasure when they use the glasses with different filters and they can see different messages.

[@dinosaur0073]

Interesting...!!!!

[@VabellaBeauty]

Neil and Chuck 💙💙

[@emorsi]

LOL... Neil explained it in the easiest way he could imagine and I still had to concentrate hard the whole time to understand all of it. That's why I am a musician and not a scientist.

[@MetaPhysStore0770]

Amazing how many AI bots commented to stir up trouble on the video with curt jaimungal, you were totally logical and he wanted speculation on the "no evidence of aliens" discussion.

[@thebrightest1230]

Hi, I am obsessed with color. Can you talk more about colors and the science of color reproduction ie Pantone, and how those color pigments are made. I’m sure they spend lots of time testing that and looking at these pigments under a microscope. So yes, I’d love to know how they create the pigments scientifically

[@scottchilds5726]

Windsor Newton has a great way of how pigment has been a part of us all

[@gmark007isGianmarcoMaioli]

So James Web is “just making”trichromes of space? As a film photography aficionado, I’m blown away :,)

[@zlotchew]

I love how Lord Chuck’s knowledge of the rainbow comes from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”!