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
The Way to Monetary Freedom: A Viable Aide - 26 US States for Fly Fishing
- 3A Texas GOP congressman is retiring. Trump just endorsed his identical twin to replace him.
- 4Mali and Canadian miner Barrick agree to resolve tax dispute, ending 2-year standoff
- 5‘We are the alternative’: Anti-Hamas Gaza militia tells BBC group is receiving international support
- Discovering a sense of harmony: Individual Accounts of Reflection and Care
- An Investigate of 6 Creative Specialty Mixed drinks
- Electric discovery on Mars! Scientists find tiny lightning bolts coming from Red Planet dust clouds
- Unwinding the Starting points of America: An Excursion Through History
- 6 Savvy Locks for Lofts
- Understanding climate change in America: Skepticism, dogmatism and personal experience
- Watch This Glacier Race into the Sea
- Strengthening through Wellness: Individual Preparation Achievement
- Antivirus Programming for Exhaustive Security
