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.
Best Wellness Tracker Keep You On target- The most effective method to Amplify Your Opportunity for growth in a Web-based Degree Program
- Pilot captures jaw-dropping northern lights show from 36,000 feet (photos)
- $2,000 tariff rebate checks? 50-year mortgages? Making sense of Trump's new 'affordability' proposals.
- US FDA panel to weigh bid to market nicotine pouches as lower-risk than cigarettes
- Alice Wong, founder of the Disability Visibility Project, dies at 51
- Home Remodel Administrations: Change Your Residing Space
- 10 Fundamental Tips and Deceives to Lift Your Cell phone's Exhibition
- Savvy Cleaning: The 6 Robot Vacuums of 2024
