This just in: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a Tumblr girl, actually.
Since its launch in 2022, the JWST has dazzled the masses with spectacular photos of interstellar sights like the pillars of creation, exploding stars, and — checks notes — squirting moons.
While the public sees those images are seen in striking color, though, that’s not actually how the JWST captures them. As Space.com reports, images snapped by the advanced telescope first arrive to researchers in black and white, and are then colored back on Earth by scientists who use data to make a well-educated guess as to what the cosmic bodies in the pictures might look like in the spectrum of visible light.
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