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by nullc 1334 days ago
Hubble can take images similar to what you see, but the famous pillars of creation image is not an example of that.

That in image in "Hubble pallet" or SHO. It's an image where the colors come from three extremely narrow spectral bands that have better contrast in astronomical images because they show ionized gasses with less noise from dust reflected blackblody light.

Red=sulphur line, Green=Hydrogen line Blue=oxygen line.

The oxygen line appear blue-green to the human eye, and the Hydrogen alpha line is a dim far red color that the eye isn't very sensitive to, the sulphur line is even further towards the infrared, barely visible at all.