Butterfly Nebula

The wings are gas thrown out by a dying star hidden behind the dark band of dust at the centre, one of the hottest stars known at over 200,000 kelvin.

The picture hangs at that distance facing Earth, as large as it is on the sky; how deep the object is cannot be seen, so it is flat.

Taken by

Hubble Space Telescope

Picture spans

about 2.3 ly

From the Sun

3,400 light-years

RA / Dec

258.43° / -37.10°

Credit

NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

NGC 6302 is a bipolar type planetary nebula in the constellation Scorpius. The structure in this planetary nebula is among the most complex ever seen in any planetary nebulae. The spectrum of Butterfly Nebula shows that its central star is one of the hottest stars known, with a surface temperature in excess of 250,000 degrees Celsius.

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