A telescope in Chile has captured a striking new image of a grand, winged cosmic object. The National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab released the photograph showing the billowing, glowing lobes of the bipolar nebula NGC 6302, often called the Butterfly Nebula, Bug Nebula or Caldwell 69.
The image was taken last month with the 8.1-meter Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón, part of the International Gemini Observatory. The nebula lies about 2,500 to 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. At its center sits a white dwarf star that shed its outer layers long ago; the expelled gas forms the butterfly-like wings, illuminated by the hot remnant.
Students in Chile selected NGC 6302 as the observatory’s 25th-anniversary target through the Gemini First Light Anniversary Image Contest. NOIRLab said the contest engaged students in the host locations of the Gemini telescopes to celebrate the legacy since Gemini South’s first light in November 2000.
NOIRLab notes that the nebula’s exact discovery date isn’t certain. A 1907 study by American astronomer Edward E. Barnard is frequently credited, though Scottish astronomer James Dunlop may have spotted it as early as 1826.
This picture adds to a long history of dramatic images of planetary nebulae, showcasing how dying stars can produce complex, beautiful structures as they lose their outer layers and the remaining core lights up surrounding gas.
