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
She was moments away from giving birth. The hospital discharged her- Big majority in Germany call Berlin's efforts on gas prices too weak
- Nature's Treats: 10 Organic products That Lift Prosperity
- Vote in favor of your favored spot to peruse
- Study reveals links between global food systems, obesity, and climate change
- As Western heat wave ends, scientists try to make sense of its length and intensity
- Cells have more mini ‘organs’ than researchers thought − unbound by membranes, these rogue organelles challenge biology’s fundamentals
- What's A Decent FICO rating?
- German Easter peace marches draw tens of thousands
