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
Exhaustive Experiences into Prudent Senior Living in the UK - 2What you need to know about Trump accounts as Michael and Susan Dell donate $6 billion to the new early childhood investment program
- 3Ancient mass grave discovered in water cistern during Tel Azekah excavations
- 4The Best Portable Applications for Psychological wellness and Prosperity
- 5Treason trial of South Sudan's suspended VP is further eroding peace deal, UN experts say
- Understanding climate change in America: Skepticism, dogmatism and personal experience
- A definitive Manual for Well known Fragrances
- Productive CRM Programming for Client Relationship The executives
- The next frontier in space is closer than you think – welcome to the world of very low Earth orbit satellites
- Closets for Your Room: Plan and Utility Features
- Geminid meteor shower, one of the year's most reliable, peaks this weekend
- NASA Artemis 2 astronauts to make historic moon flyby today. Here's what to expect hour by hour (timeline)
- Rebecca Gayheart on her 'very complicated' relationship with Eric Dane: 'I am always going to want the best for him'
- 7 Peculiar Ways Of starting Your Imagination: Motivation Has Never Been This Good times
