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
Kremlin: Russian troops conquer Pokrovsk after year of intense combat - 2What you need to know about Trump accounts as Michael and Susan Dell donate $6 billion to the new early childhood investment program
- 3Going with Children: Tips for Tranquil Family Get-aways
- 4Eleven arrested over mass shooting in South Africa tavern
- 5Heartfelt Objections to Visit with Your Adored One
- Manual for Picking the Ideal Wine Matching
- AfD faction in western Germany ousts councilman for firebrand speech
- Building a Maintainable Closet: Individual Excursions in Moral Style
- Verdicts against social media companies carry consequences. But questions linger
- A Manual for Pick Great Lawful Discussion Administrations For New businesses In 2024
- This Unique National Park In Canada Is Famous For Its Otherworldly Limestone Monoliths
- What’s your chronotype? Knowing whether you’re a night owl or an early bird could help you do better on tests and avoid scams
- April’s full pink moon will rise in the night sky this week
- How comfort foods trigger pleasure in our brains
