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.
Top Fascinating Organic products: Which One Might You Want to Attempt?- Manual for Savvy Home Lighting Framework: Lights up Your Space
- Become the best at Discussion: 6 Procedures for Progress
- In these U.S. groups, deaths now exceed births. What’s happening?
- Coalition led by Iraqi PM al-Sudani wins parliamentary elections
- Most loved Public Dish: Which One Addresses Its Nation Best?
- UN estimates over 2,000 Sudanese pregnant women have fled el-Fasher to escape conflict
- Eating ultra-processed foods could raise precancerous polyp risk for women under 50, according to research
- The last penny was pressed by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia today. Could the nickel and dime be next?
