A telescope in Chile has captured a dramatic new view of a winged cosmic spectacle. The National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab released the photograph showing the bright, billowing lobes of the bipolar planetary nebula NGC 6302, commonly known as the Butterfly Nebula, the Bug Nebula or Caldwell 69.
The picture was taken last month with the 8.1-meter Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón, part of the International Gemini Observatory. NGC 6302 lies roughly 2,500 to 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. At its heart is a white dwarf remnant that ejected its outer layers long ago; those expelled gases form the striking, wing-like structures now lit by the hot stellar core.
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 invited students from the regions that host Gemini facilities to celebrate the observatory’s legacy since Gemini South first saw first light in November 2000.
The nebula’s discovery history is a little uncertain. A 1907 study by American astronomer Edward E. Barnard is often cited, though Scottish astronomer James Dunlop may have observed it as early as 1826.
This new image joins a long tradition of breathtaking photographs of planetary nebulae, illustrating how dying stars can carve out intricate, luminous shapes as they shed their outer layers and leave behind a hot core that energizes the surrounding gas.