When I first came across these Hubble Telescope photos of the universe, I couldn't believe they were real. Looking at these your first inclination is to think they're paintings created for a sci-fi novel cover or backgrounds for a 70s space movie poster. The Hubble should be called the "Humble", because looking at these photos really puts things in perspective about the vast size of the universe.
Hubble's camaras record light from outer space with special electronic detectors, then assign colors based on various reasons and apply imaging filters to produce these stunning photos of space. View many more samples at
HubbleSite.org.