Blizzard warnings in Northwest Minnesota, winter weather advisories across the state

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

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.

Science

Homepage

The Associated Press

Author

Snapped last month by the Gemini South telescope, the aptly named Butterfly Nebula is 2,500 to 3,800 light-years away. At the heart of this bipolar nebula is a white dwarf star that cast aside its outer layers of gas long ago.

Telescope in Chile captures stunning new picture of a cosmic butterfly

Go Deeper.

Like this?