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
UAE used military bases in Red Sea region to aid Israel's war against Hamas, leaks reveal - 2Recent studies prove the ancient practice of nasal irrigation is effective at fighting the common cold
- 3Ukrainian drones hit all three Baltic States − did Russia redirect them?
- 4The Way to Monetary Health: Individual budget Change
- 5EU delegation urges China to tighten export controls
- From Lounge chair to Money: Online Positions That Will Change Your Profession
- World's oldest known tortoise still very much alive despite rumor to the contrary
- The World's Dazzling Regular Miracles
- Instructions to Pick the Ideal SUV Size for Seniors
- Triumph's 400 Range Has Just Changed In India, And Here's Why
- James Webb Space Telescope discovers a lemon-shaped exoplanet unlike anything seen before: 'What the heck is this?'
- Revealing the Specialty of Food Matching: Improving Culinary Encounters
- Why doing good also makes us feel good, during the holidays and beyond
- Why screening for the deadliest cancer in the U.S. misses most cases
