A telescope in Chile has captured a stunning new picture of a grand and graceful cosmic butterfly.
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 butterfly-like wings billowing from the aging star, whose heat causes the gas to glow. https://t.co/zOghNSB7l3