Courtesy: CBS
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 on Wednesday. The glowing “wings” appear to be bursting in the image. While the bipolar nebula goes by the monikers Butterfly Nebula, Bug Nebula or Caldwell 69, its official name is NGC 6302.
Snapped last month by the Gemini South telescope — half of the International Gemini Observatory on Cerro Pachón, a mountain in Central Chile — 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

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