A cosmic butterfly
Astronomers have captured an extraordinarily detailed image of a so-called space butterfly. Named for its resemblance to the winged insect, this astral phenomenon is a rare form of planetary nebula—a giant cloud of blue, red, and purple gas that forms when ancient stars shed their outer layers. The butterfly effect, which occurs in only 10 to 20 percent of nebulae, is the result of a second star interfering with the flow of gas around the dying star. The research
ers who took the image say the butterfly “appears to float and flutter across the sky.” It is a relatively short-lived phenomenon in astronomical terms, lasting only a few thousand years, reports CNN.com. The nebula, known as NGC 2899, is somewhere between 3,000 and 6,500 lightyears from Earth, in the constellation Vela, which can be seen from the Southern Hemisphere. The image was captured with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope— the world’s most advanced optical instrument—which is stationed in Chile.