Starship Asterisk*

NGC 6302: The Butterfly Nebula

Explanation: The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. This sharp close-up was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. The Hubble image data is reprocessed here, showing off the remarkable details of the complex planetary nebula. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).

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The butterfly nebula looks more like a fancy bow-tie (IMO)! It is beautiful though.
















9

Looks more like a monkey wearing a cape and hailing a cab in NYC. Tho the number of arms and legs leave a little room for doubt. I would have liked to see the image with the torus superimposed on the it. Just for perspective.

OOOOOoooohhhhh... that is gorgeous!

How significant is the dust torus in the formation of this nebula?
Or, is the expansion of gas from the star directed in polar jets, rather as occur from black holes, only not so well focussed?
The other Butterfly Nebula, M2-9 has no evidence of a dust torus: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160724.html

John

+100 points to whoever came up with "arachnologically correct"

And an awesome image of The Butterfly Nebula it is to be sure....

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Anyone got a 4LY wide butterfly net?

RW5 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:06 am Anyone got a 4LY wide butterfly net?

Nah, sold mine. But better to catch it with the HST, than to catch it with a net. Won't somebody think of the butterflies?

This is a very beautiful image.