A butterfly in the stars 🦋

This #hubbleclassic image of the Butterfly Nebula shows layers of gas being ejected from a Sun-like star that has exhausted its nuclear fuel. The gas is heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit and is moving across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour.

Eventually this stunning planetary nebula will fade and leave behind a stellar corpse known as a white dwarf in its place. In the constellation Scorpius, this nebula is about 4,000 light-years away.

Image credit: A. Zijlstra (UMIST) et al., ESA, NASA

#nasa #hubble #classic #butterfly #nebula #space #science #astronomy #universe

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