Quote:
Originally Posted by Fazor
WRT: The "airbrush" or seemingly fake photos, also keep in mind that the spectacular photos of nebulae and other astronomic phenomenon are typically displayed in false-color. Sometimes it's to represent the different gasses/elements that make up the objects, or the differing spectrum of photons emitted outside the visible light range. Sometimes it's purely for artistic purposes. The objects are indeed there; they just don't look like the photos to the naked eye.
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And also taken in wavelengths or with instruments where clear, sharp-edged images can not be obtained. One illustration of how an object might appear "airbrushed" due to optical flaws or limitations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:I...after_SMM1.jpg
Many interesting objects are just beyond the limits of current equipment and can not be imaged clearly. Also, even when clear images are possible, very different physics are involved in the formation of nebulae and such. With photon pressure, heating from stars and collisions with other bodies of gas, self gravitation, shock waves, etc, and the enormous scales involved, things do not behave much like clouds in the sky. Speaking of which...take a close look at those sometimes, particularly around dawn or dusk. They can often look horribly fake, despite being quite certainly real (unless you feel like positing a conspiracy hiding the fact that the sky's a computer generated projection).