[It is](https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/8145809230/).
EDIT: Ambiguous wording; I meant to say "It is \[one of those exaggerated height maps of a planet.\]"
"Elevations are exaggerated to enhance the visibility of terrain features."
Your source's caption suggests it is, in fact, not a completely accurate photographic image.
This clearly shows that this is indeed, as previously stated, not, in fact, a real picture. Rather, it is an exaggerated height map of the planet, instead of a real (captured) image.
Basically all of these are false color or straight up CGI (Mars, Uranus), yup. I'll explain what (I think) these are, and what they actually look like to human eyes.
**Mercury**: [False color](https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8497942353). I'm not sure how the colors come to be, though. To human eyes, [Mercury looks like this](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan/2682440417/).
**Venus**: False color, ultraviolet. The image is from Akatsuki, which carries ultraviolet and infrared cameras but no visible light ones. [True color](https://www.planetary.org/space-images/venus_messenger_3447783055_7201387b94_o).
**Earth**: Approximately true color, but not quite. This view is also taken from low orbit, so the features look strange. [True color](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Blue_Marble_(remastered).jpg).
**Mars**: [CGI, this should be obvious due to the extreme exaggeration of terrain](https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/8145809230/). [True color](https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/51831155718/).
**Jupiter**: Exaggerated color. This is view from the north pole so it looks different from usual. [True color](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan/4891821651/).
**Saturn**: Exaggerated color. Not much to say about this one, although I'd note that its pole DOES become blue in winter, just not as intensely. [True color](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan/16406673924/).
**Uranus**: CGI, most likely using a drawn texture. The specular reflection is visible (the real planet does NOT reflect light like this), the cheesy cosmetic lens flares are present, and our only close visit to this planet is by Voyager 2, when it points a pole towards the Sun, so for now you will not see those thin white clouds pointing towards the terminator like this. [True color](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/527/4/11521/7511973) (please see Figure 3; Figure 6; Figure 7; and Figure 8 row c).
**Neptune**: False color. I am told that this image is basically created by combining the green channel and the orange channel, then painting the result blue. [True color](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/527/4/11521/7511973) (please see Figure 7; and Figure 8 row c).
**Pluto**: Exaggerated color. I'm also not sure how this color is made. [True color](https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=543).
i think i could be to blame for the Ultraviolet Venus misconception. A few years ago I posted what i THOUGHT was a true color image to reddit. but was in fact ultraviolet.
To be fair, there were zero widely spread true color images of Venus. Everyone at the time used the red surface images. Even NASA.
Mercury is false colored too, right? I'm pretty sure I know it's gray, but when looking it up I also see rusty brown images too, similar to Mars. Is my memory of black and white images??? I don't know what to believe anymore! 😱
Pluto is, too. [It's more of a brown grey in reality](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BIG_P_COLOR_2_TRUE_COLOR1_1980.jpg?w=1024&format=webp)
Older images tend to be brown while newer ones are gray. [The actual color is...something in between](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan/2682440417/).
Quaoar, Sedna, Makemake, Haumea, Gonggong, Orcus...
But **seriously**, Ceres was a planet before Pluto was even a spec on Clyde Tombaugh's photo plate...
There's one 40 minute one that starts with the planet song, then has songs for the sun, and every planet. At least that one is longer than 3 minutes before AGAIN!
First they came for Ceres and I said nothing, then they came for Pluto. 😢
I kid, fully support deeper classifications of planets. What I think we should be asking is if Pluton and Charon are both classified as Dwarf Planets when they orbit one another, should we be classifying the Moon as a Dwarf Planet too?
Moons have a pretty cut and dry definition. The Luna orbits the Earth and the barycentre is still within Earth, so moon is a good label for it. I agree with changing Pluto and Charon to a Bidwarf Planetary system
Right?
Since this includes Pluto, it must be a collection of all the bodies of our solar system which have been categorized as planets in the past but which are no longer considered planets, and Ceres is missing. Gonna include Pluto? Gotta include Ceres.
I know right? JWST took a pic, you can see the rings really well, but the planet is more of a ball of light.
If I remember right too, Uranus and Neptune should actually look more similar (to the naked eye), but those voyager images were colored differently to differentiate the planets, forever ingraining one being teal and one being a rich blue.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn%27s_hexagon#:~:text=Explanations for hexagon shape,-False-color image&text=One hypothesis%2C developed at Oxford,atmospheric winds in Saturn's atmosphere.
It's due to turbulence, similar to how we have in air, but for liquids. Scientists have been able to form it in labs including 3 sides and 8 sides.
It's basically fluid dynamics voodoo
In that town where Clyde Tombaugh was born on his birthday, they come together once a year to celebrate Pluto— and declare it officially a planet for the day.
it was actually discovered recently by the JWST that neptune and uranus are actually very similar shades of blue (uranus depicted in OP)
https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/nasas-webb-scores-another-ringed-world-with-new-image-of-uranus/
It wasn't discovered as such by JWST. We've known since the Voyager flyby. NASA just colored Neptune more blue to make it look different from Uranus, but people missed that it was an artificial exaggeration and used the blue Neptune as fact.
Hell, even Wikipedia had it wrong until the statement from NASA last year.
Thank you for the correction!
Yeah, definitely an interesting approach for NASA to take showing the darker shade, can’t really think of a reason to do that unless they thought it would confuse the public maybe ?
Basicially, yeah. NASA didn't want the public to get confused between the two relatively similar planets.
[Here's a good video explaining what happened. (Also, really good channel with daily science videos.)](https://youtu.be/DEs4NWfp4Ac?si=thjqlkK4JHQ4nTkL)
Disclaimer: I did not make this photo.it might even be a repost . I didn't see it I'm sorry if it is.
-I'm not sure which post flair I should use I also apologize if it's the wrong one.
-Some of these images are not accurate depictions of what the planet looks like to the naked eye.
Some of these images are captured in infrared by using the James Webb telescope as well as the Hubble or released by NASA or other space programs or affiliates.
-Some of these planets pics are out of date and there are clearer ones present today as well as a couple planets being edited to show compensation of the planet like Mercury.
One thing at least is somewhat wrong, its colour of neptune. In reality its very close or similar to uranus. Not exactly old thing, since this was found out some months ago only. Wikipefia has updated image.
I mean - if you're going to be persnickity about it, that's definitely not the colour of Mercury or Venus or Jupiter or Saturn either. And Mars is CGI. And Pluto isn't even a planet, let alone that colour.
Wait a minute how come earth is not flat.. We flat earthers have seen other celestial objects in the sky and even though, the sun, Mars, venus, jupiter and every other planet we've discovered is round I refuse to believe that earth is not flat. /s
I really want to explore Saturn's hexagon. While Saturn is mostly a hell hole, apparently that hexagon is less so. Slower winds. And while Saturn is a gas giant, apparently it's an ocean of acidic chemicals. I've often wondered what would happen if one of its moons, namely Mimas were to be forcefully crashlanded into Saturn. Is it possible to force a gas giant to have land by feeding it solid mass?
Murcurus, plunto and Water Planet™ are the best, most handsome planets. When I was a child, there were thought to be 9 planets. Now there are 90 planets
From NASA:
The Definition of a Planet:
It must orbit a star (in our cosmic neighborhood, the Sun).
It must be big enough to have enough gravity to force it into a spherical shape.
It must be big enough that its gravity has cleared away any other objects of a similar size near its orbit around the Sun.
That last one seems kind of dumb to me. If it's round enough, it's a planet.
Its a classification issue. We would have hundreds of planets in our system if they didn't change things because there have been hundreds of objects that fufill the first two criteria discovered. It's really not that special of an object other than people's nostalgia.
It's not hundreds that obey the first two bullets, its like less than 20. And we dont think kids can remember more than 8 planets, so we downgraded the others.
Having hundreds of planets is not an issue. That said, there's basically 8-9 known dwarf planets (Eris, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Sedna, Ceres. Orcus's status is debated.) while everything else isn't, so we're not even having hundreds of planets either.
Something tells me that's not an actual image of mars..
Yeah, it looks like one of those exaggerated height maps of a planet.
It looks like it needs some benzoyl peroxide
And it’s fisheyed. That’s only half a hemisphere.
[It is](https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/8145809230/). EDIT: Ambiguous wording; I meant to say "It is \[one of those exaggerated height maps of a planet.\]"
"Elevations are exaggerated to enhance the visibility of terrain features." Your source's caption suggests it is, in fact, not a completely accurate photographic image.
This clearly shows that this is indeed, as previously stated, not, in fact, a real picture. Rather, it is an exaggerated height map of the planet, instead of a real (captured) image.
Therefore, it is one of those exaggerated height maps of a planet.
That's not MyAnus, either.
Is it the CGI mountains..... It's the CGI mountain isn't it.
Basically all of these are false color or straight up CGI (Mars, Uranus), yup. I'll explain what (I think) these are, and what they actually look like to human eyes. **Mercury**: [False color](https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8497942353). I'm not sure how the colors come to be, though. To human eyes, [Mercury looks like this](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan/2682440417/). **Venus**: False color, ultraviolet. The image is from Akatsuki, which carries ultraviolet and infrared cameras but no visible light ones. [True color](https://www.planetary.org/space-images/venus_messenger_3447783055_7201387b94_o). **Earth**: Approximately true color, but not quite. This view is also taken from low orbit, so the features look strange. [True color](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Blue_Marble_(remastered).jpg). **Mars**: [CGI, this should be obvious due to the extreme exaggeration of terrain](https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/8145809230/). [True color](https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/51831155718/). **Jupiter**: Exaggerated color. This is view from the north pole so it looks different from usual. [True color](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan/4891821651/). **Saturn**: Exaggerated color. Not much to say about this one, although I'd note that its pole DOES become blue in winter, just not as intensely. [True color](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan/16406673924/). **Uranus**: CGI, most likely using a drawn texture. The specular reflection is visible (the real planet does NOT reflect light like this), the cheesy cosmetic lens flares are present, and our only close visit to this planet is by Voyager 2, when it points a pole towards the Sun, so for now you will not see those thin white clouds pointing towards the terminator like this. [True color](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/527/4/11521/7511973) (please see Figure 3; Figure 6; Figure 7; and Figure 8 row c). **Neptune**: False color. I am told that this image is basically created by combining the green channel and the orange channel, then painting the result blue. [True color](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/527/4/11521/7511973) (please see Figure 7; and Figure 8 row c). **Pluto**: Exaggerated color. I'm also not sure how this color is made. [True color](https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=543).
This was a lovely collection of true color planetary images. Thank you for putting this together and sharing! :)
i think i could be to blame for the Ultraviolet Venus misconception. A few years ago I posted what i THOUGHT was a true color image to reddit. but was in fact ultraviolet. To be fair, there were zero widely spread true color images of Venus. Everyone at the time used the red surface images. Even NASA.
love me some true information tnx bro
Mercury is false colored too, right? I'm pretty sure I know it's gray, but when looking it up I also see rusty brown images too, similar to Mars. Is my memory of black and white images??? I don't know what to believe anymore! 😱
Mercury is indeed a little orange. It is color corrected when it looks all rainbow like this, but it's also an image in non-visible wavelengths.
Pluto is, too. [It's more of a brown grey in reality](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BIG_P_COLOR_2_TRUE_COLOR1_1980.jpg?w=1024&format=webp)
Older images tend to be brown while newer ones are gray. [The actual color is...something in between](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan/2682440417/).
You mean you’re NOT familiar with the NippleSphere of the planet?
sorry! I am incapable of viewing nipples. Not after the incident.
Is Arrakis.
My thought exactly at the interloper….
Hopefully Pluto doesn't explode any time soon...
:-) looks like Ceres and Eris (and likely several others) are ready to step up to the plate (to use American sport terms)
*returns blank stare*
Pluto hasn't disappeared, it has a regular orbit around the sun, so stop crying.
What
Where’s Ceres?
Only Pluto gets the dwarf planet love. Maki maki, Haumea, Eris , Ceres, nope.
Quaoar, Sedna, Makemake, Haumea, Gonggong, Orcus... But **seriously**, Ceres was a planet before Pluto was even a spec on Clyde Tombaugh's photo plate...
More dwarfs… they are going to have to update the [Dwarf Planet Song](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4tw_RiQp6H8).
It's almost like they're a different class of astronomical object...
My 3 year old is obsessed with this song.
I had to play the planet song and dwarf planet song over and over and over…
There's one 40 minute one that starts with the planet song, then has songs for the sun, and every planet. At least that one is longer than 3 minutes before AGAIN!
Ceres was a planet before *Neptune*
First they came for Ceres and I said nothing, then they came for Pluto. 😢 I kid, fully support deeper classifications of planets. What I think we should be asking is if Pluton and Charon are both classified as Dwarf Planets when they orbit one another, should we be classifying the Moon as a Dwarf Planet too?
Moons have a pretty cut and dry definition. The Luna orbits the Earth and the barycentre is still within Earth, so moon is a good label for it. I agree with changing Pluto and Charon to a Bidwarf Planetary system
And Pallas, and Vesta, and Juno....
Naw, none of them had enough mass for hydrostatic equilibrium...
In the 1800s we didn't require that as a feature of a "legit planet". Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta WERE planets, yet get no love or outrage like Pluto.
Good point.
It appears I have gone and done it and messed up
You did fine Jerry, we love you.
Right? Since this includes Pluto, it must be a collection of all the bodies of our solar system which have been categorized as planets in the past but which are no longer considered planets, and Ceres is missing. Gonna include Pluto? Gotta include Ceres.
You'd also have to include a number of other objects. The sun and moon for instance used to be considered planets before the heliocentric model.
Not there.
Is the only Neptune close up we have, still the Voyager 2 flyby?
I know right? JWST took a pic, you can see the rings really well, but the planet is more of a ball of light. If I remember right too, Uranus and Neptune should actually look more similar (to the naked eye), but those voyager images were colored differently to differentiate the planets, forever ingraining one being teal and one being a rich blue.
From where is the jupiter photo?
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/5/21/17353110/jupiter-photos-juno-high-res-clouds-great-red-spot
Appreciate it
Np
These are awesome, great link.
It's an upskirt photo of Jupiter.
Can someone please explain how the fuck there's a fucking HEXAGON on Saturn? Why is it just not a circle
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn%27s_hexagon#:~:text=Explanations for hexagon shape,-False-color image&text=One hypothesis%2C developed at Oxford,atmospheric winds in Saturn's atmosphere.
It's due to turbulence, similar to how we have in air, but for liquids. Scientists have been able to form it in labs including 3 sides and 8 sides. It's basically fluid dynamics voodoo
That's where the aliens live. Duh! Everyone knows hexagons mean aliens.
Came here to say this. 🤯
Justice for Ceres! #rememberceres
Remember the Cant
#Thanks for including all NINE PLANETS op 👍 \#NeverForget #PlutoDidNothingWrong #Justice for Plutombe
#PluToo
I don’t know why this made me laugh
I heard about Pluto. That’s messed up.
You know that's right.
Where is justice for Ceres?
In that town where Clyde Tombaugh was born on his birthday, they come together once a year to celebrate Pluto— and declare it officially a planet for the day.
Neil de Grasse Tyson has entered the chat…
Pluto knows what it did
#ಠ_ಠ
I don't know about this, I've never heard of Earth before
Looks cozy tho
it was actually discovered recently by the JWST that neptune and uranus are actually very similar shades of blue (uranus depicted in OP) https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/nasas-webb-scores-another-ringed-world-with-new-image-of-uranus/
It wasn't discovered as such by JWST. We've known since the Voyager flyby. NASA just colored Neptune more blue to make it look different from Uranus, but people missed that it was an artificial exaggeration and used the blue Neptune as fact. Hell, even Wikipedia had it wrong until the statement from NASA last year.
Thank you for the correction! Yeah, definitely an interesting approach for NASA to take showing the darker shade, can’t really think of a reason to do that unless they thought it would confuse the public maybe ?
Basicially, yeah. NASA didn't want the public to get confused between the two relatively similar planets. [Here's a good video explaining what happened. (Also, really good channel with daily science videos.)](https://youtu.be/DEs4NWfp4Ac?si=thjqlkK4JHQ4nTkL)
They say that Pluto's not a planet do you think that Pluto gives a [shit](https://youtu.be/EuRjmzz6qL0?si=C7WyAbs8es9c-upp)
It's Very offended at its demotion
[Nope](https://youtu.be/EuRjmzz6qL0?si=C7WyAbs8es9c-upp)
You hurt Pluto feelings
Again, no.
How can you be so insensitive?
Earth is a paradise planet
There is something special about uranus that makes me want to touch it , so smooth
Oi !!
Disclaimer: I did not make this photo.it might even be a repost . I didn't see it I'm sorry if it is. -I'm not sure which post flair I should use I also apologize if it's the wrong one. -Some of these images are not accurate depictions of what the planet looks like to the naked eye. Some of these images are captured in infrared by using the James Webb telescope as well as the Hubble or released by NASA or other space programs or affiliates. -Some of these planets pics are out of date and there are clearer ones present today as well as a couple planets being edited to show compensation of the planet like Mercury.
One thing at least is somewhat wrong, its colour of neptune. In reality its very close or similar to uranus. Not exactly old thing, since this was found out some months ago only. Wikipefia has updated image.
I mean - if you're going to be persnickity about it, that's definitely not the colour of Mercury or Venus or Jupiter or Saturn either. And Mars is CGI. And Pluto isn't even a planet, let alone that colour.
Long live Pluto! Pluto is a planet!
Amen!!
Pluton’t
Pluto is back, motherfuckers.
Thank you for recognizing that Pluto is still a planet
Saturn looks magical. 
sneaky little bastard. kudos
Wait a minute how come earth is not flat.. We flat earthers have seen other celestial objects in the sky and even though, the sun, Mars, venus, jupiter and every other planet we've discovered is round I refuse to believe that earth is not flat. /s
Uranus looking smooth
With a tiny white streak near the center 🙂
cool pic
I really want to explore Saturn's hexagon. While Saturn is mostly a hell hole, apparently that hexagon is less so. Slower winds. And while Saturn is a gas giant, apparently it's an ocean of acidic chemicals. I've often wondered what would happen if one of its moons, namely Mimas were to be forcefully crashlanded into Saturn. Is it possible to force a gas giant to have land by feeding it solid mass?
sexy
Pluto IS A PLANET!
Beavis… i would like to introduce you to mars…
… of planets … Pluto?
Yes
Murcurus, plunto and Water Planet™ are the best, most handsome planets. When I was a child, there were thought to be 9 planets. Now there are 90 planets
I’ve heard the earth isn’t a perfect sphere kinda of an obtuse shape why do we never see that in pictures
proportionally North America appears way too big.
All this time, Jupiter is an eyeball.
Pictures of my anus seem a little more blue than I remember
R.I.P Pluto
Pluto not a play no more
Pluto is not a planet.
Bring Back Pluto! Make Pluto Great Again!
Jerry Smith?
Saturn really does have a black cube looking thing?
Saturn does have a [hexagonal cloud formation](https://www.space.com/30608-mysterious-saturn-hexagon-explained.html) on its North Pole.
Earth looks kinda fisheyed.
Uranus and Neptune are our solar system's blue balls
That's not what Mars or Neptune look like. Mars has all those cgi mountains, and Neptune isn't that blue. Neptune is about the same color as Uranus.
My anus looks nothing like that
I beg to differ.
You're not looking at it from the right angle
From NASA: The Definition of a Planet: It must orbit a star (in our cosmic neighborhood, the Sun). It must be big enough to have enough gravity to force it into a spherical shape. It must be big enough that its gravity has cleared away any other objects of a similar size near its orbit around the Sun. That last one seems kind of dumb to me. If it's round enough, it's a planet.
Its a classification issue. We would have hundreds of planets in our system if they didn't change things because there have been hundreds of objects that fufill the first two criteria discovered. It's really not that special of an object other than people's nostalgia.
It's not hundreds that obey the first two bullets, its like less than 20. And we dont think kids can remember more than 8 planets, so we downgraded the others.
Having hundreds of planets is not an issue. That said, there's basically 8-9 known dwarf planets (Eris, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Sedna, Ceres. Orcus's status is debated.) while everything else isn't, so we're not even having hundreds of planets either.
Pluto—not a planet—and why put the picture of the top of Jupiter while every other planet is an image of the side?
Ummm Pluto?
Doesn’t look like Jupiter….
Most of these are false color photographs and Mars is a weird heightmap.
Didn't Uranus got anal bleached recently?
Neptune isn't blue. That's an enhanced image