In Living Color

Though many people aren't aware of it, there have been very few color photos taken outside the atmosphere of Earth. Nearly all the photos from probes are taken by black-and-white CCDs, filtered through various spectra wavelengths to gather specific data about things like gas composition. In many cases, the invisible (to the human eye) radiation wavelengths like ultraviolet and infrared are assigned visible colors in the press release photos. This often results in wildly distorted public perception about what space really looks like. You know those gorgeous photos of nebulae with the swirling fluorescent colors? Totally faked. Nebulae are very diffuse clouds of gas. To the human eye, most of them are for all practical purposes totally invisible, even if you were right in the middle of one. But I digress.

A woman going only by the name "Ellen" has spent years compiling adjusted photos of the planets. The montage below is, near as can be created, what the human eye would see if you looked out the porthole of a hypothetical spaceship. Piclick for more detailed images and explanations. (The rocky one between Mars and Jupiter is Ceres, the largest planetoid in the asteroid belt).