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How Are Webb’s Full-Color Images Made?

A lot of care is poured into processing the telescope’s full-color images, which begin as black-and-white exposures.

Taking a full-color photo is typically instantaneous. Many of us walk around with powerful cameras in our pockets—our smartphones. What may be less obvious is that the images smartphones take begin as binary code, long lists of zeros and ones known as bits. But we don’t see the binary code. Instead, a full-color image almost immediately appears on screen. For Webb’s cameras, a full-color image is not an instant second step. Why? Much of it is owed to their complexity as scientific instruments, which are far more advanced than those we point and shoot.

Three-part image shows an almost completely black image at left. At center is a black-and-white image of the Pillars of Creation. At right is a full-color composite of the Pillars of Creation. The third image has crisp layers of semi-opaque rusty red colored gas and dust that starts at the bottom left and goes toward the top right. There are three prominent pillars rising toward the top right. The left pillar is the largest and widest. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of brown and have red outlines. These details are mostly clear in the second image, but only appear in black and white.
Webb’s raw telescope images initially appear almost completely black (left). They are initially transformed by image processors into crisp black-and-white images (center) and then full-color composites (right). A ton of care and consideration is poured into each step. Download Webb’s near-infrared image of the Pillars of Creation.

Let’s start by reminding ourselves of where this powerful observatory is located. Webb follows a halo orbit 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Earth. It’s not exactly nearby. Despite this, it takes only five seconds for Webb to send data to Earth. But those data aren’t delivered as an image. Instead, the data are transmitted to Earth in the form of bits. When the binary code hits “home,” at the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST), the bits are transformed into black-and-white images, and these unprocessed images are made available to the public quickly, unless there is a proprietary research period (typically one year).

How exactly is color applied to Webb’s images? Whether you are an astrophotographer, a researcher, or imaging specialist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), processing a Webb image is a human-centered process. Here, we detail how these images are made at STScI, including how Webb’s infrared light is mapped to the visible light our eyes can perceive.

In This Article:

Downloading the Raw Images

Defining the Images

Removing Artifacts

Precisely Applying Color

Editing for Composition

Scientific Image Review

Releasing Webb’s Images

Color Assignments at a Glance

Combining Near- and Mid-Infrared Images

Process an Image Yourself!

Video: Composing Webb Telescope Images

Preview how Webb’s full-color images are processed by going “behind-the-scenes” with Joe DePasquale and Alyssa Pagan, the science visuals developers who process the telescope’s full-color images.
Producer: NASA, ESA, CSA, Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI); Video: Gregory Bacon (STScI), Jackie Barrientes (STScI), Claire Blome (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Quyen Hart (STScI), Leah Hustak, Joyce Kang (STScI), Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI), Kelly Lepo (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Yessi Perez (STScI); Acknowledgment: Macarena Garcia Marin (ESA), Christine Klicka (STScI); Illustration: NASA, STScI; Music: APM, Premium Beat

Get video details and downloads in the Video gallery, or download video captions (VTT, 14 KB), and transcript of the audio description (Word Doc, 22 KB).

Downloading Raw Image Files

All data, or images, from Webb’s cameras are located in MAST.

An advanced search form in the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) shows that 13 results were located. The bulk of the screen shows a list view of those results. Rows 5 through 10 are selected, and are labeled science under observation; JWST under mission; CALJWST under provenance name; NIRCAM under instrument; JWST under project; F187N, F444W, F200W, F444W, F090W, and F335M under filters; infrared under waveband, and M 16 under target name. At right, is a vertical image of the sky. It takes up less than a fifth of the image. A white box taking up a small portion of the view toward the center indicates where the observations are located within that region of the sky. The image of the sky is mostly light orange in the center, with black edges at top and bottom, and dots representing stars throughout.
This is a view of the search results returned to a Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) user. M16 refers to Messier 16, which is another name for the Pillars of Creation, which lie within the Eagle Nebula. The science files shown above are selected for download. At right, MAST shows where the file is located on the sky.

The Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) stores data from more than 20 telescopes, including Webb. STScI’s imaging specialists start by running an advanced search in MAST. They add the target’s name or the object’s coordinates on the sky (known formally as right ascension and declination), along with the mission (JWST in this case). Like any other search, MAST returns the results.

In the case of the near-infrared image of the Pillars of Creation, which was taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), six results appear. The search results detail which filters Webb used to observe the target. Next, our imaging specialists select which files to download. The downloads are available as Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) files, but our staff identify the image files and only download those. FITS files are tailored to the astronomy community, so they may contain additional information, like spectra, data cubes, photometric and spatial calibration details, and metadata. The mix depends on what the instrument is capable of capturing and what the researcher taking the observations requested. Sometimes the data products that are available for download number in the thousands. Luckily, users can select the “download minimum files” box to avoid crashing their computers.

Defining the Raw Images

Imaging specialists stretch, or rescale, images to reveal their contents. Then they match the resolution of every image.

Astronomical images are typically built with multiple exposures, which is another reason why they require time and care to process. One image from Webb might be 140 megabytes (MB), but another could be 5 gigabytes (GB). Unlike our handheld cameras, many of Webb’s filters within its cameras target specific elements or molecules. For example, some of NIRCam’s filters are designed to detect hydrogen, iron, water, and methane. This means the individual images need to be matched up to create a single, aligned composite image. In total, NIRCam has 29 filters, so our imaging specialists pay careful attention to the contents of each.

When any of Webb’s raw images are initially opened, they appear almost totally black. This doesn’t mean they contain no information. Instead, they require stretching or rescaling to identify where the information was captured within that particular filter’s image. The universe is very dim, especially in infrared light, so the most interesting parts of a Webb image are buried in the darkest regions.

Webb’s detectors are so sensitive that they can capture more light than our eyes or screens can process in its raw form. This is known formally as dynamic range—and Webb’s dynamic range is vast! In every Webb image, each pixel can be one of over 65,000 different shades of gray. Think of Webb’s detectors like light buckets. As Webb observes, it collects everything it detects, filling its “buckets” with light. Now imagine dumping one large bucket’s contents into a dollhouse-sized teacup to compress what was captured and present it in a format that we can perceive and our computers can display. Stretching Webb’s images allows image specialists to see variation in the pixel values and highlight the bulk of what was captured in the image. A mathematical function is used to increase the brightness of the darkest pixels, while maintaining details within brighter pixels in the image. Stretching and compression are required because Webb’s images have a vast dynamic range.

A screenshot shows an unprocessed black-and-white horizontal image of the Pillars of Creation toward the top. It does not have much contrast. A histogram appears below it to show where the information lies within the image. The right side of the screen shows specs, including Current Data Point, Image Statistics, Scaling (Dynamic Range), and additional options.
A screenshot shows an unprocessed black-and-white horizontal image of the Pillars of Creation. A histogram appears below it to show where the information lies within the image. Image specialists stretch Webb’s images to see variation in the pixel values and highlight what was captured. A mathematical function is used to increase the brightness of the darkest pixels, while maintaining details within brighter pixels in the image. Stretching and compression are required because Webb’s images have a vast dynamic range.

Our staff uses FITS Liberator to see each pixel’s specific numerical value and adjust what’s shown to ensure they are preserving the scientific detail in each image, which is known as stretching. They repeat this process for every filter they may use in the final composite image.

Next, our imaging specialists upscale longer wavelength images so they match the higher resolution of shorter wavelength images. And, yes, it is possible to do this while maintaining the overall image quality! For example, NIRCam takes high-resolution images that range in size. Images from NIRCam’s shorter near-infrared filters are typically twice the size of images from its longer near-infrared filters. No two images are precisely the same. During this portion of the image editing, our staff align the images to ensure they have the same scale and resolution.

At this stage, all the individual images that will be used to create the final NIRCam composite are the same size, resolution, and have a better overall contrast, allowing our staff to see textures, highlights, and shadows. However, this is only the initial pass. Think of this portion of the process like stacking papers that were scatted across your desk in precise, orderly piles before you begin fully analyzing what they contain.

Removing Artifacts

Editing star cores—and hunting for striations, repeated stars, and stray cosmic rays.

At this stage, every image needs to be assessed carefully. STScI’s imaging specialists move to professional image editing software to look for artifacts. (GIMP is a great free software option.) Bright star cores may appear black in Webb’s unedited images. This might be jarring to non-astronomers, but it’s a visual cue that speeds up research: Black star cores indicate there’s no useable data to investigate. (Every star has a particular brightness. Knowing how bright a star is and its distance can help researchers determine the amount of energy it emits. If the star’s brightness exceeds what Webb’s detectors can capture, there is no information to pull.) Since some stars have very bright cores, our imaging specialists sample nearby bright pixels (which are typically almost pure white) and use them to replace the cores of stars. The process is similar for cores of bright galaxies.

Sometimes, detectors within Webb’s cameras can produce striations in the image, referred to as readout noise or 1/f noise. These appear as lines in the image background. Much of the readout noise is rejected by the camera itself, but it is important to carefully inspect the images to ensure none snuck through. (Read more about the NIRCam detector readout patterns.) Our imaging specialists work to carefully remove every striation that appears.

A bright star appears at center with eight white diffraction spikes. The background is black. The core of the star is also black.
Some star cores appear black in Webb’s images. They are visual cues to astronomers that there is no useful data there. Image specialists sample nearby bright pixels to replace these black star cores.
A black-and-white image shows a few white stars in the scene. Irregular, light gray vertical lines known as striations appear all across the image.
Striations in the image, referred to as readout noise or 1/f noise, may appear as lines in the image background. Imaging specialists apply an algorithm to remove them.
A bright star with eight thicker, blue-white diffraction spikes appears almost at center. A few stars and galaxies are in the background, which is black. A white arrow points to another tiny star within the large star’s bottom-center diffraction spike. That tiny star also has its own diffraction spikes, but is an artifact from a previous exposure.
When a star oversaturates a few pixels on a camera’s detector, it may persist when the camera takes another image, appearing as a small point of light in later images that must be removed. A white arrow points to an example in the bottom-center diffraction spike of the central star.
The background is dark gray, and there are light yellow stars of all sizes in the scene. Tiny red dots toward the top, middle, and bottom of the image have white circles to show the cosmic rays that are removed from Webb’s images.
Cosmic rays sometimes appear as bright spots within Webb’s images. That makes them very difficult to identify! Our image processors start by assigning colors and then compare multiple images of the same target to pinpoint and replace these bad pixels. Above, cosmic rays are highlighted with white circles, and appear red.

Occasionally, a star will oversaturate pixels on a camera’s detector. As a result, when Webb takes additional images with the same filter, the star’s appearance persists across several frames. For example, in Webb’s First Deep Field, the bright star at the bottom right persisted through several images. It didn’t reappear as large as it did in the original image, though, since its brightest light was deposited in only a few pixels of the camera’s detector. Since this particular image is created from multiple frames, NIRCam’s detector shifted as it took each new image to build the scene, causing the persistent star to reappear elsewhere in the image. In this case, it reappeared as a tiny star within the actual star’s large, lower right diffraction spike. Looking for and removing these repetitions is essential to ensure that the images reflect only the objects that exist in that region of space.

Finally, our staff carefully identify and remove image artifacts caused by energetic charged particles known as cosmic rays. Cosmic rays rain down on the Solar System and can be picked up in space telescope images—this is not unique to Webb. When these particles hit Webb’s detectors, they show up in an image as bright spots, usually as tiny white pixels or short, thin white lines in Webb’s black-and-white unprocessed images. Points appear when cosmic rays directly hit the detector and lines occur when cosmic rays hit at an angle. Our image processors start by assigning colors and then compare multiple images of the same target to identify and replace any bad pixels with the average background level in nearby pixels.

Precisely Applying Color

Infrared light is invisible to our eyes, so image processors translate these wavelengths of light, in order, to visible colors.

Webb observes infrared light, light that is beyond what human eyes are capable of detecting. However, the process of applying color to Webb’s images is remarkably similar to the approach used with the Hubble Space Telescope and other astronomical observatories that observe visible light. Telescopes use advanced filters that can detect specific elements or molecules. This is also why telescope images are typically layered with two or more images from different filters.

Along the left third of the image are six insets showing NIRCam’s images of the Pillars of Creation, F090W was assigned deep violet, F187N was assigned cyan, F200W was assigned teal, F335M was assigned yellow, F444W was assigned deep orange, and F470N was assigned red. At right is a single full-color composite. It looks like there is a fog over the image. It is not crisp and clearly still a work in progress.
At left are six separate images of the Pillars of Creation taken by different filters in Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera. Each has a single color applied. (The specific filter is noted in the upper left corner of each image.) When combined, they become the initial composite image, shown at right. From here, there is still plenty of work to be done to refine and pull out detail in this composite. This is only a starting point.

In addition to stretching, scaling, and cleaning up artifacts, STScI’s imaging specialists carefully assign individual images from Webb’s various filters to blue, green, and red color channels to align with the color palette human eyes perceive. All the colors we can see are composed of those colors and any digital image we view on a screen can also be broken down into red, green, and blue color channels.

Color is applied chromatically: The shortest wavelengths are assigned blue, slightly longer wavelengths are assigned green, and the longest wavelengths are assigned red. If more than three images make up the final composite image, purple, teal, and orange may be assigned to additional filters that fall before or in between blue, green, and red. Assembling the color image from these images gives our imaging specialists the initial composite image. Yes, there is still work to be done! These initial color images are still only drafts.

Editing for Composition

Carefully considered adjustments draw viewers’ eyes and increase the scientific value of Webb’s images.

One aspect STScI’s imaging specialists assess is the color balance in the image. This is where they may neutralize the overall background, ensuring there are equal levels of red, green, and blue. For example, if one filter adds more background light, it may cause a green cast. Our staff pick a white reference, usually the core of a star, and use it to equalize the white across the image. These steps ensure that there’s a balance among the light in the image from individual filters.

Three images are shown side by side. At left is a hazy image of the Pillars of Creation. Brown pillars rise from bottom left to top right. The background is a light purple. At center, a clearer image shows a deeper indigo background and clearer brown pillars in the same orientation. At right, the final full-color composite image shows the same scene, but has crisp layers of semi-opaque rusty red colored gas and dust that starts at the bottom left and goes toward the top right. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of brown and have red outlines. The background is range of crisp blues.
Hazy, clearer, crisp! At left is the initial color composite that was created by combining six near-infrared filters. It looks like there is a fog cast over the scene. At center, the image is shown in progress. Our staff have begun making edits to bring out its color and contrast. The final full-color image appears at right, showing off the vast number of bright stars, shades of brown gas and dust, and lots of variation in the blue background.

From here, the editing process becomes more subjective. STScI’s imaging specialists follow the visual principles of photography to bring out details that may appear flat or dull in the initial color composite. There is an enormous amount of visual depth and dimension contained within Webb’s data and it is their responsibility to present it in the best possible way while maintaining the integrity of the original data.

Our imaging specialists work to ensure the features that are the focus of the science pop out or draw the eye. This may lead to additional hue adjustments along with cropping. They may also rotate the image to ensure either the cropping is limited or the presentation of the object is ideal, drawing the eye along the frame easily. For example, if Webb’s camera points like a rhombus, a shifted square, they may need to consider the image’s orientation. Would rotating it 45 degrees counterclockwise look strange or cause them to crop out too much data? These are examples of what they encounter and consider. Sometimes their orientation choices echo familiar landscapes. For example, Webb’s Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula would look “heavy” if they were turned upside down, as if a mountain range appeared above the horizon.

At left, a section of the Pillars of Creation shows diffraction spikes on its stars angled left to right, and right to left. At center, a section of the Pillars of Creation shows diffraction spikes on its stars angled right to left, and left to right. At right, a section of the Pillars of Creation shows the diffraction spikes at the center of its stars perfectly horizontal.
The orientation of the diffraction spikes on the stars in Webb’s images matters! In the images at left and center, they appear off kilter. At right, the stars appear with lines that follow the edges of the final image, with perfectly horizontal and vertical diffraction spikes.

Additionally, the image specialists have intentionally preserved the orientation of the stars in Webb’s near-infrared images, to show the diffraction spikes in the same orientation in almost every release. They are permitted to reorient the images—there’s no “up” in space after all. But to their eyes, seeing their vertical and horizontal diffraction spikes in NIRCam images parallel to the verticals and horizontals of the edges of the image helps orient viewers. This is due in part to the fact that the angles between the stars’ spikes aren’t equal.

Our staff also typically crop the images to be square or rectangular, giving Webb’s images a cinematic quality while preserving the majority of the scene Webb delivered. Since these elements of the image processing are subjective, our imaging specialists spend the most amount of time editing the images at this stage, conferring with one another and a team of designers for comments and suggestions. In every case, their goal is to release images that are scientifically accurate and immediately engaging.

Scientific Image Review

Our imaging specialists collaborate closely with scientists before releasing Webb’s images.

For every image they create, STScI’s imaging specialists not only collaborate with their larger team of designers, but also with the scientists who led the observations. Webb typically releases images that are based on scientific research published in peer-reviewed journals. Reviewing the images before they are finalized with these investigators is crucial, and can lead to important changes. Scientists are often focused on how an image will be perceived, and seek to ensure that the image supports and provides a visual explanation of their discoveries.

Releasing Webb’s Full-Color Images

Highly skilled image specialists work hard to produce immersive images that highlight Webb’s scientific capabilities.

Four Webb images shown evenly spaced in one row. The Tarantula Nebula has tan-colored clouds with rust-colored highlights, surrounding a black central area containing a bright cluster of sparkling pale blue stars that scatter outward from a densely packed center. One bright yellow star stands out in the central open area, with eight long thin points. Webb’s First Deep Field shows thousands of distant galaxies of different shapes, sizes, colors, and brightness with a scattering of bright foreground stars. A closeup of Neptune shows a glowing sphere, mostly white, with a few extremely bright patches splattered throughout the sphere’s bottom half, which represent methane-ice clouds. The glowing sphere is accompanied by several narrow, faint rings, 2 thinner, crisper rings and 2 broader, fainter rings. There are 6 tiny white dots, near or within the rings, that represent its moons. At far right is L1527, a forming protostar surrounded by a large hourglass-shaped nebula. The top is orange, and the bottom begins red-orange and switches to bright blue toward the bottom. It’s set against a black background.
Since releasing its first images and data in July 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope has captured a range of scenes, including the Tarantula Nebula, SMACS 0723 (known as Webb’s First Deep Field), Neptune, and a protostar within the dark cloud L1527.

Phew! If you’ve read this article top to bottom, you now realize how much work is poured into creating Webb’s images. Our imaging specialists stretch and rescale the black-and-white images, remove artifacts, apply color in chromatic order, assess the composite image’s composition, and review and edit with designers and scientists. All of these efforts highlight Webb’s scientific discoveries and lead to immersive images that capture the public’s attention.

While STScI’s imaging specialists are working to edit Webb’s images, writers on our news team work in parallel to write engaging text for the press release and image captions, fully explaining what we’re seeing, what was discovered, and describing the images with alternative text for those who are blind or have low vision. The team collaborates not only to showcase Webb’s images, but also to explain them and help readers immerse themselves in exciting astronomical discoveries. As we like to say, the universe is for everyone!

Explore all of Webb’s news releases or take a tour through its extensive image gallery. Want Webb’s press releases sent straight to your inbox so you never miss an image? Sign up for the STScI Inbox Astronomy Newsletter at the bottom of our news page.

At a Glance: Color Assignments in Near- and Mid-Infrared Images

Colors are assigned in chromatic order (blue, green, red) from shortest wavelength to longest wavelength for both of Webb’s cameras.

Webb has two main cameras onboard! Its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captures shorter wavelengths of infrared light. Its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) captures longer wavelengths of infrared light. When applying color to images from MIRI, STScI’s imaging specialists follow the principles outlined above for NIRCam. In total, MIRI has 9 filters, while NIRCam has 29 filters. MIRI’s composite images typically include three or four filters that are combined to create a final full-color image. NIRCam composite images typically contain four or five filters.

Each of Webb’s filters has a formal name that represents the specific range of infrared light it captures. Webb’s infrared light is measured in microns, a unit of length equal to one millionth of a meter. Below are listed the filters most often assigned particular colors, along with their measurements in microns. Our image processors use these specs as a baseline. Sometimes they reassign a filter from one color to the next along the spectrum to support the science.

NIRCam (Near-Infrared Light)

The Pillars of Creation are shown in deep violet at left, with very little contrast, and cyan at right, which still does not have a lot of contrast.
Colors: Violet, Blue, Cyan. Example Filter Range: F070W to F200W. Units: 0.7 to 2 microns.
The Pillars of Creation are shown in a teal-green at left, which looks more washed out, and yellow at right, which more clearly shows the pillars.
Colors: Green, Yellow. Example Filter Range: F200W to F356W. Units: 2 to 3.6 microns.
The Pillars of Creation are shown in orange at left, which looks more washed out, and red at right, where the pillars pop clearly into view at right.
Colors: Orange, Red. Example Filter Range: F356W to F444W. Units: 3.6 to 4.4 microns.

MIRI (Mid-Infrared Light)

The Pillars of Creation are shown in blue. The edges of the finger-like pillars are brighter blue, while everything else is a deeper blue.
Colors: Blue, Cyan. Example Filter Range: F560W to F1130W. Units: 5.6 to 11.3 microns.
The Pillars of Creation are shown in a green. The edges of the finger-like pillars are bright green, and some stars appear in the background.
Colors: Green, Yellow, Red. Example Filter Range: F1130W to F1800W. Units: 11.3 to 18 microns.
The Pillars of Creation are shown in red. There are bright areas in the finger-like pillars along with dark regions. The left side of the image is a far darker red.
Color: Red. Example Filter Range: F1800W to F2550W. Units: 18 to 25.5 microns.

There are quite a large number of filter combinations that can appear in all of Webb’s images! Let’s say researchers use six filters for an observation. Once the data are in hand, our image specialists will carefully review what each image contains. Most often, the science drives why a filter may not be added to the final composite image, but it could also be due to its resolution or how much it adds to the composite. For example, if adding a filter muddies the overall look of an image and it becomes harder to identify the stars being studied in that particular region, our staff confer with the scientists about which filters to include, and which to leave out. A dropped filter may still provide a lot of scientific value, but researchers will analyze it separately. There is a lot of discussion about which filters the final full-color image contains.

Combining Webb's Near- and Mid-Infrared Images

There are two ways our imaging specialists combine images from NIRCam and MIRI.

When combining two composite images, one featuring near-infrared light from NIRCam and another featuring mid-infrared light from MIRI, our imaging specialists have found that two approaches work. They can either layer the light from each camera along the electromagnetic spectrum, starting with near-infrared light and working their way over to longer mid-infrared light filters, or they can weave them together based on their individual filter color assignments, which means the colors are knitted together.

Two images: At left, Stephan’s Quintet is shown as a colorful group of galaxies with hundreds of background galaxies and numerous foreground stars. At right, the Cartwheel Galaxy appears as a large ring-shaped galaxy with two smaller spiral companion galaxies, all seen face-on, with a background of much smaller, more distant galaxies of various colors, shapes, and sizes. Click the links in the caption for more descriptive alt text.
For these Webb images, colors were assigned along the electromagnetic spectrum, maintaining a clean separation between near- and mid-infrared light. This treatment pulls out millions of young stars, starburst regions, and sweeping tails of gas, dust, and stars in Stephan’s Quintet (left). Similarly, this approach helps to highlight the rings and spokes in the Cartwheel Galaxy (right).

For example, Stephan’s Quintet and the Cartwheel Galaxy show light from shortest wavelength to longest wavelength. For both composites, NIRCam’s near-infrared light filters were assigned blue, green, yellow, and red hues, while MIRI’s mid-infrared filters fall only within orange and red hues.

Two images shown, the left takes up about a quarter of the composite. At left is a square-image of the Pillars of Creation composite, which shows layers of semi-opaque brown- and purple-colored gas and dust that starts at the bottom left and goes toward the top right. There are three prominent pillars rising toward the top right. The top pillar is the largest and widest. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of brown and have red areas. At right is a wide composite image of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula. It shows a dense gray-green undulating cloudscape below a deep blue-gray starscape with scattered eight-pointed stars.
In these composite images, colors are woven together like threads in a blanket. In the composite image of the Pillars of Creation at left, this treatment highlights thousands of stars and the thick layers gas and dust all across the scene. At right, a composite view of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula also gives the stars, gas, and dust equal treatment.

However, when combining the near- and mid-infrared images for the Pillars of creation and the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, a new tactic yielded a more effective, compelling composite. Our image processors wove the filters from NIRCam and MIRI together, like threads in a woven blanket. This approach created images that capture attention and highlight the science. In the Pillars of Creation and the Carina Nebula, both NIRCam and MIRI filters were assigned cooler colors, like purple, blue, and teal, along with greens and reds. Sometimes, it’s not clear even to our staff which approach is best until they combine Webb’s near- and mid-infrared images.

Try It Yourself!

Process existing images from NASA’s space telescopes, or capture and process your own!

Participate in an upcoming NASA’s Astrophoto Challenge, a project part of NASA’s Universe of Learning, to process an astronomical image on your own. You may use the raw data from a space-based telescope or capture new telescope data with a MicroObservatory Robotic Telescope Network ground-based telescope. Then, use the browser-based JS9-4L software, which is similar to what astronomers use (not what is described above about our image processors), to edit the image. Find the full suite of tools used in the challenge, along with video tutorials to guide you as you learn.

Or, dive more deeply into how Webb and Hubble Space Telescope images are made by reading our imaging specialists’ blog, Illuminated Universe: