Space is actually kind of a lie. Well, not the space part, but the way we see it. When you scroll past a James Webb Telescope image on your phone, you aren't looking at a "photo" in any way your brain understands the term.
You’re looking at a translation.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) doesn't see "colors" like we do. It’s an infrared beast. It sees heat. It sees the invisible.
Because of that, there's this weird misconception floating around that these images are "fake" or just digital paintings made by NASA's PR team to keep the funding rolling in. Honestly? That couldn't be further from the truth. Every single pixel in those glowing nebulae and "little red dots" represents hard, cold data.
But it’s data that would be pitch-black to the human eye.
The Infrared Lie (And Why It’s Actually Honest)
If you stood right in front of the Pillars of Creation, you’d see... nothing. Maybe some faint, murky dust.
Hubble gave us the visible light version, which looked like majestic, solid towers of rock. But Webb? Webb uses its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to slice right through that dust like it isn't even there.
Suddenly, those "solid" pillars look like ghostly, translucent veils.
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Inside them, you see thousands of stars that were literally invisible ten years ago. These are "protostars"—babies being born in a cosmic nursery.
How the colors actually happen
NASA uses a process called chromatic ordering. It’s basically a fancy way of saying they take the invisible wavelengths and map them to colors we can actually perceive.
- Shortest wavelengths (the "hottest" infrared) get assigned blue.
- Medium wavelengths get assigned green.
- Longest wavelengths (the "coolest" or most distant) get assigned red.
It’s not random. It’s a logical shift. Think of it like a translator taking a poem in a language you don't speak and finding the right words in your language to keep the meaning intact.
Those Strange "Red Dots" and 2026’s Biggest Mystery
As of January 2026, the internet is buzzing about some "mysterious red dots" appearing in the deepest Webb images. For a while, even the pros were stumped. These dots are tiny, but they represent objects from the very dawn of time.
New research published just this week from the University of Copenhagen finally cracked the code.
They aren't just old galaxies. They’re "baby" supermassive black holes.
These black holes are roughly 100 times less massive than we expected, but they are eating so fast they’ve created a "cocoon" of glowing gas around them. That gas is so thick and hot that the only light that can escape is shifted into the deep red part of the spectrum.
Basically, we're watching the universe’s most violent growth spurts in real-time.
The "Cosmic Cliffs" Aren't What You Think
You've seen the image. The one that looks like a range of orange mountains under a starry sky. That’s the Carina Nebula.
Here is what people get wrong: those "cliffs" aren't solid. They are a massive wall of gas and dust being "eroded" by the intense radiation of nearby giant stars.
The "steam" you see rising off the mountains? That’s actually ionized gas being blasted away by ultraviolet light.
Webb captured this with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). While NIRCam shows us the stars, MIRI shows us the dust itself. In the MIRI version of the Cosmic Cliffs, the stars mostly disappear, and the "mountains" glow with a weird, haunting light. It’s the signature of hydrocarbons—the same stuff you find in car exhaust, but on a galactic scale.
Why does this matter?
Because that dust is where planets come from. By looking at a James Webb Telescope image of these regions, scientists like Elizabeth Tarantino from the Space Telescope Science Institute can see the "blueprint" of how our own solar system started.
The Difference Between Webb and Hubble (Visible vs. Infrared)
People always ask: "Why is Webb better?"
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It’s not just that it’s bigger—though a 6.5-meter mirror vs. Hubble’s 2.4-meter mirror is a massive jump. It’s about the "eyes."
Hubble is like a high-end digital camera. It sees what you see.
Webb is like a thermal imaging scope.
Imagine trying to see someone through a house filled with smoke. Hubble can't do it. The smoke (dust) blocks the light. Webb just looks at the heat signature of the person through the smoke.
A Quick Breakdown of the Tech:
- Location: Hubble orbits Earth. Webb is at Lagrange Point 2 (L2), about 1.5 million kilometers away. It stays in Earth’s shadow to keep cool.
- Wavelengths: Webb sees from 0.6 to 28.5 microns. That’s "orange" all the way to "deep heat."
- Sensitivity: It can detect objects 100 times fainter than Hubble could.
What’s Next? The "Wet Lava Ball"
Just last month, astronomers found the best evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet called TOI-561 b.
They’re calling it a "wet lava ball."
Because the planet is so close to its star, it should be a dead rock. But Webb’s data shows it’s actually a bit cooler than expected. This suggests it has a thick atmosphere that’s cycling gases between its molten surface and the sky.
We aren't just looking at pretty pictures of clouds anymore. We are looking at the geology of worlds trillions of miles away.
How to Get the Most Out of These Images
If you want to actually "read" a James Webb Telescope image like a pro, stop looking at it on a tiny phone screen.
Go to the official ESA/Webb or NASA archives and download the full-resolution TIF files.
When you zoom in, look for the diffraction spikes. Webb’s mirrors are hexagonal, so every bright star has an 8-pointed starburst pattern. Hubble stars only have 4. That’s your first clue for tell-tale "authentic" data.
Then, look for the "smears." Those tiny, curved arcs of light aren't glitches. That’s gravitational lensing. A massive galaxy in the foreground is literally bending the fabric of space-time, acting like a magnifying glass for a galaxy hidden behind it.
Actionable Steps for Space Fans:
- Download the "FITS Liberator": This is the free tool pros use to turn raw space data into images. You can actually process your own Webb photo.
- Check the "Picture of the Month": ESA/Webb releases a high-res feature every few weeks (like the recent Red Spider Nebula or Westerlund 2).
- Watch the Spectrum: When you see a graph with "CO2" or "CH4" peaks, that’s just as important as the photo. It’s the "smell" of another planet’s air.
We are currently in the golden age of seeing the unseen. Every week, another image drops that breaks a previous law of physics or adds a new chapter to how we think galaxies form. The next time you see a glowing orange cloud, remember: you’re looking at a map of heat, 13 billion years in the making.
Next Steps for Deep Space Discovery
To truly appreciate the scale of these discoveries, you should begin by comparing the Pillars of Creation side-by-side using the official NASA "Slider Tool." This interactive comparison shows exactly how infrared light bypasses cosmic dust to reveal hidden stars. Once you’ve mastered the visual differences, visit the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) to browse the raw, unprocessed data from the latest 2026 observations. Understanding the transition from raw data to the final "representative color" image is the only way to truly see through the "infrared lie" and appreciate the genuine science behind every pixel.