This newly released image from the Gemini South telescope captures a well-known planetary nebula—a massive star fizzling out at the end of its life. These celestial displays often take on a circular or globular shape, but NGC 6302, as it’s formally known, bears a distinct resemblance to a butterfly. And what a beautiful butterfly it is.

I dabble in some amateur astronomy, and planetary nebulas are among my favorite targets. These objects have nothing to do with planets; early astronomers named them that because, viewed through small telescopes, they resembled distant gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter. M57, also known as the Ring Nebula, is a case in point, as you can see from my own image of the object below. The term “planetary nebula”—frustratingly—stuck, even though they are, in reali

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