NASA Photos, Beauty and Colors

I was posting this as a comment on Barb‘s website, but the comment just kept getting longer so I decided to give it its own home here on Several Species.

Barb pointed out an article that contained one of NASA‘s red and blue “photographs.” While the article made her think of death, I thought of beauty. Also, when I grow up, I want to be an astrophysicist.

I really like all the NASA photos that they’ve put out in the last few years. But I’m always dismayed when thinking about it, realizing that they are all things I (or any human) will ever be able to see with my own eyes.

Even if humans are able to travel to far off galaxies to get a glimpse of these wonders, they will never look as beautiful as the NASA photos. The NASA telescopes are creating the colors in the photos based on frequencies of light not visible to the human eye. Never will we see these beautiful red and blue nebulae; their actual “colors” are well beyond our ability to see. It’s sad.

If we were somehow able to see infrared, x-ray, gamma rays as we do see the colors of the “visible spectrum,” what would they look like? What is redder than red? What is bluer than blue?