Can't see color in the space with naked eyes?

Question

I've heard someone said there is no color in space - of course there will be a color, obviously, but since there is too much light, and no atmosphere to absorb it, human's naked eyes can't see anything but black and white. Everything will be either too dark, or too bright.

I know for the fact that NASA's space cameras have some sort of underexposure filter thus their space photos doesn't show any stars (ie. apollo project's moon surface photo didn't have any stars, so some conspiracy claimed that those photos had been manipulated), so I think that is possible that light in space is too bright, but it is somewhat weird that you can't see any color in space. After all, earth should be blue(colorful) when seen from the space. Then why shouldn't be anything else?

So, my question is simple; is it true that what you will see in space is only black and white?

Answer 1

What is true is that the brilliant colors you see in astrophotos of nebulae are too faint to be seen live, even through a telescope. Most nebulae are just too faint to trigger the color sensors (cones) in your eye, so you see them with your monochrome night vision (rods). In particular, you can't see the red color that's in a lot of photos; not only is it faint, but it's also in a part of the spectrum your eyes aren't very sensitive to.

You can certainly see colors in planets - Mars, for example, is distinctively reddish. I'm sure the blue of Earth would be quite striking if you were seeing it from Mars.

If you look carefully, you will see that stars vary in color - some are bluish, while others are yellowish or reddish. The colors are not intense because stars emit a continuous spectrum; you only notice the color when it is skewed to one end of the spectrum. You can also see blue or green in some of the brighter nebulae, particularly planetary nebulae.

Answer 2

Except for the moon and the sun, the light in space is too dim to activate the color sensing portions of our eyes. Some people with good vision can pick out the extremes of star colors.

NASA has no underexposure filters. The lack of stars in the moon photo's was that the camera's film responds to a limited light range and the exposure couldn't be set to show the stars and the lunar surface at the same time. If you exposed for the stars, the astronauts would have been an overexposed blob. Take your friends to the beach, take a picture of the m with a flash and see how many stars you see in the background.

If you use long exposure cameras for astro pictures, you'll see all the color like here;

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070326.html

Answer 3

Visible light is made up of 7 components (VIBGYOR, the colors of the rainbow), and if you see green colour then that is because a green object absorbs all the color rays, except green and reflects it. A back body absorbs all color rays and reflects none. All these colors are radiation from High energy end (ultra-Violet) to low energy (red and infra-red). So basically in space, where distances are huge (for absorption and subsequent reflection), the scientists do not talk in terms of color, but in terms of radiation (wavelength) emitted. There are available filters, through which you can take pictures in 'color'. It is possible to capture a green body using a red filter and a red body using an infra red filter (Ref: Ultra-violet-VIBGYOR-infra red, a lower level filter is used for capturing higher energy 'colors'). By combining such pictures on the computer, you get the colorful pictures posted by the space agencies. The technique is very common and many softwares are available to do the job.

And of course, in space, all radiation is not of the 'visible' category. There may be several charged particles, or X rays which are invisible and cannot be captured in regular cameras.

Answer 4

Yes it is visible from the ground, however you will need to know where to look. Visit NASA's website and follow their instructions on how to find the station. There are thousands of satellites in the night sky, good luck trying to spot it!

Answer 5

You CAN see color in space. Haven't you ever seen any of the pictures of Earth from space? See the sources.