Galaxy Zoo Talk

Color explination

  • CraigglesO by CraigglesO

    Hi, I really like this photo and and I was curious as to what creates the different colors and there meaning? I know that objects moving away are red and objects coming to are blue. Thanks,
    Craig.

    Posted

  • fatha731 by fatha731

    Well, Craig what we see in this picture are three stars; the glowing spheres. The weird colours, shapes and diffraction spikes around the stars are all optical artifacts due to imaging problems ( the camera is optimised to take pictures of galaxies, not stars ). The thick green line is again an artifact caused by the movement of the camera while taking the picture or it is a satellite trail ( a satellite passed in front of the lens in which case the sunlight reflected on it and it get caught in only one filter due to its speed ). Then there's also the background noise causing the fuzziness. Hope this helps.

    Posted