Question

Are the pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope edited?

Answer 1

Yes, they are coloured.

Explanation:

The Hubble takes black and white photographs at different wavelengths. The reason is that it uses CCD cameras which only produce greyscale images. Filters are used so that the CCD camera only "sees" particular wavelengths of light. These greyscale images need to be coloured and combined to create a multicoloured image.

If the wavelength which the image was taken falls within the visible spectrum then it needs to be coloured the appropriate colour.

If the image is taken in the infra red, ultraviolet or other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum then it needs to be given an artificial colour so that we can see it.

Finally all images taken at different wavelengths need to be superimposed to give the full colour image.