The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble
The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust.
This sharp close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope and is presented here in reprocessed colors. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).
Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA;
Reprocessing & Copyright: Jesús M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal
#space #nasa #nebula #universe #science #hubble
Thats amazing. I always thought nebulae were formed coalescing and not the other way around so I read about them a bit and they can also be a product of a super nova. I am no astronomer but this looks intuitively like it is something that once was.
ReplyDelete