Colour

S1 E3: Every Hubble image begins in black and white, so why are Hubble’s pictures so colourful? The telescope has a wide range of filters that can be assigned different colours. Sometimes they are assigned to be as close as possible to what the human eye sees and sometimes they are made to look vivid and unnatural to bring out hidden detail. Red and blue stars reveal different temperatures and stages in the life of a star cluster, while different colours in a nebula correspond to different chemical elements. In this segment we show how those vivid hues actually are telling us what the universe is made of. Violent Endings – Not all stars will bow out gracefully, like celestial flowers. The largest stars explode with a terrifying force and briefly shine like beacons across the universe. A supernova’s swift burst of incredible energy forges the entire universe’s supply of precious metals like gold, silver and platinum. Hubble can show us the remnants of these massive explosions in exquisite detail.