Cosmic butterfly seen in stunning new image captured by telescope in Chile

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 on Wednesday. The glowing “wings” 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.

Snapped last month by the Gemini South telescope — half of the International Gemini Observatory on Cerro Pachón, a mountain in Central Chile — 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 butterfly-like wings billowing from the aging star, whose heat causes the gas to glow.

Students in Chile chose this astronomical target to celebrate 25 years of operation by the International Gemini Observatory.

“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,” NoirLab wrote on its website. “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’s First Light in November 2000.”

It’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.