{"id":409319,"date":"2025-11-27T22:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T22:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/409319\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T22:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T22:48:15","slug":"cosmic-butterfly-seen-in-stunning-new-image-captured-by-telescope-in-chile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/409319\/","title":{"rendered":"Cosmic butterfly seen in stunning new image captured by telescope in Chile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A telescope in Chile has captured a stunning new picture of a grand and graceful cosmic butterfly. <\/p>\n<p>The National Science Foundation&#8217;s NoirLab released the picture on Wednesday. The glowing &#8220;wings&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ap25330646761752.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"Cosmic Butterfly \" height=\"413\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  This image provided by NSF NOIRLab shows NGC 6302, a billowing planetary nebula that resembles a cosmic butterfly.<\/p>\n<p>                NSF NOIRLab via AP<\/p>\n<p>Snapped last month by the Gemini South telescope \u2014 half of the International Gemini Observatory on Cerro Pach\u00f3n, a mountain in Central Chile \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<p>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-like wings billowing from the aging star, whose heat causes the gas to glow. <\/p>\n<p>Students in Chile chose this astronomical target to celebrate 25 years of operation by the International Gemini Observatory.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This picturesque object was chosen as a target for the 8.1-meter [26.5-foot] telescope by students in Chile as part of the Gemini First Light Anniversary Image Contest,&#8221; NoirLab <a href=\"https:\/\/noirlab.edu\/public\/news\/noirlab2530\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wrote<\/a> on its website. &#8220;The contest engaged students in the host locations of the Gemini telescopes to celebrate the legacy that the International Gemini Observatory has built since its completion, marked by Gemini South&#8217;s First Light in November 2000.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not known exactly when NGC 6302 was discovered, NoirLab says, but a 1907 study by American astronomer Edward E. Barnard is often credited. Scottish astronomer James Dunlop could also have discovered it in 1826.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A telescope in Chile has captured a stunning new picture of a grand and graceful cosmic butterfly. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":409320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[4515,159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-409319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-chile","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-space","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115624103690942835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}