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
Record-breaking 'space laser' erupts from merging galaxies 8 billion light-years away - 2NASA releases stunning first images of Earth taken by the Artemis II astronauts
- 3Figure out How to Streamline Your Profits in Gold Speculation
- 4Mountain Trekking on a Tight spending plan: Tracking down the Right Bicycle
- 5More than 800 flights canceled as FAA cuts traffic at 40 major airports. Here's what to know.
- Drenched in Pixels: A Survey of \Vivid Interactivity Experience\ Game
- Should you get an RSV vaccine this fall? What to know and where to get a shot
- Birutė Galdikas: The last of the ‘angels’ in primatology’s most extraordinary chapter
- Best Internet based Course for Learning Another Dialect: Which Stage Do You Like?
- German finance minister sees advantages of smartphones in schools
- German Cabinet advances bill to cut greenhouse emissions from fuels
- 6 Agreeable Earphones To Wear
- Virtual National Science Foundation internships aren’t just a pandemic stopgap – they can open up opportunities for more STEM students
- Santa's sleigh or the International Space Station? How to spot a bright Christmas flyby Dec. 24 and 25
