CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A telescope in Chile has captured a stunning new picture of a grand and graceful cosmic butterfly.
The National Science Foundation’s NoirLab released the picture Wednesday.
Snapped last month by the Gemini South telescope, the aptly named Butterfly Nebula is 2,500 to 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. A single light-year is 6 trillion miles.
At the heart of this bipolar nebula is a white dwarf star that cast aside its outer layers of gas long ago. The discarded gas forms the butterflylike wings billowing from the aging star, whose heat causes the gas to glow.
Schoolchildren in Chile chose this astronomical target to celebrate 25 years of operation by the International Gemini Observatory.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
latest_posts
- 1
Cheetah, Hammerhead Shark, and 38 Other Animals in Danger of Extinction Receive New International Protections from U.N. - 2Most loved Specially prepared Espresso Mix: Which Meal Do You Adore the Most?
- 3Vote In favor of Your Number one Sort Of Blossoms
- 4Winter virus season so far is not too bad, but doctors worry about suffering to come
- 5Vote In favor of Your Favored Comupter Game
- Astronauts beam home Christmas wishes from International Space Station: 'I think we may be orbiting a little higher than Santa' (video)
- It's your last chance to subscribe to Paramount+ before they raise their prices: Here's how to lock in current pricing
- The Best 15 Applications for Efficiency and Association
- Latvia seeks emergency UN meeting over Russian missile attack on Lviv
- Whale stranded off Germany for days found stuck again
- AI’s errors may be impossible to eliminate – what that means for its use in health care
- Step by step instructions to Explore Assessment Ramifications of Disc Rates
- Remarkable Spots for Hot Air Swelling All over The Planet
- 'No middle ground' for tackling antisemitism after Bondi Beach mass shooting, deputy FM Haskel says
