You’re looking at the Butterfly Nebula, a dying star 3,800 light-years away throwing a tantrum so beautiful it looks like the universe made art on purpose.
You’re looking at the Butterfly Nebula, a dying star 3,800 light-years away throwing a tantrum so beautiful it looks like the universe made art on purpose.
That butterfly took about 2,200 years to form.
The star at the center is completely hidden behind a wall of dust so dense Hubble couldn’t see it at visible wavelengths.
The wings aren’t random either. A ring of gas around the star’s equator forced everything to escape only upward and downward. That’s what created the shape. Geometry, not beauty.
The central star runs hotter than 250,000°C. One of the hottest objects in the galaxy. Invisible inside its own creation.
A star that made something this extraordinary and can’t even be seen inside it.
I’ve sat with that for a while and it still doesn’t fully land.
BlushKynra on
Love this. The bipolar lobes are clumpy gas heated to tens of thousands of degrees, with a dark dusty body (torus) hiding the star. Recent JWST and ALMA data even spotted complex structures and crystalline ices there.
4 Comments
That butterfly took about 2,200 years to form.
The star at the center is completely hidden behind a wall of dust so dense Hubble couldn’t see it at visible wavelengths.
The wings aren’t random either. A ring of gas around the star’s equator forced everything to escape only upward and downward. That’s what created the shape. Geometry, not beauty.
The central star runs hotter than 250,000°C. One of the hottest objects in the galaxy. Invisible inside its own creation.
A star that made something this extraordinary and can’t even be seen inside it.
I’ve sat with that for a while and it still doesn’t fully land.
Love this. The bipolar lobes are clumpy gas heated to tens of thousands of degrees, with a dark dusty body (torus) hiding the star. Recent JWST and ALMA data even spotted complex structures and crystalline ices there.
That was a great description!!
can I get the picture in a higher resolution?