#ngc6302

NGC 6302: The Butterfly Nebula 

Butterfly Nebula

The Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302, is a planetary nebula located about 4,000 light years away towards the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion. The “wings” of the nebula span some 3 light years. 

The central, dying star of NGC 6302 is unusually hot, about 250,000 degrees Celsius at its surface. Even though it is hidden by a thick torus of dust and gas, it appears bright in ultraviolet light. Planetary nebula form from dying, Sun like stars. These stars eventually run out of material for fusion and collapse, emitting their outer layers which form the surrounding nebulae.

Butterfly Nebula, is a bipolar planetary nebula in the constellation Scorpius. The structure in the nebula is among the most complex ever observed in planetary nebulae. The spectrum of NGC 6302 shows that its central star is one of the hottest stars in the galaxy, with a surface temperature in excess of 200,000 K, implying that the star from which it formed must have been very large. The central star, a white dwarf, has a current mass of around 0.64 solar masses. 

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).

NGC 6302: The Butterfly Nebula Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Robert Eder