When astronomers try to observe very faint astronomical objects, sometimes we need to expose the detector for 4 hours or more to collect enough light to see anything at all, and having to do that three times is often prohibitive. So sometimes we only have time to take one image — essentially a black and white picture.

However, with the use of computers, we can make an image be any color at all very easily! We can even make them psychedelic if we want! Not just to entertain ourselves, but by using a wide range of false color, we can selectively show otherwise faint regions of this nebula to study its structure.

For example, this visible light image was taken by VSU astronomy students, Jason Looper and Jason Gaines. Coloring this image and increasing the contrast level reveals a subtle structure to the gas cloud.