Astronomy picture of the day 01-10-2014 - The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble

The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team; Reprocessing & Copyright: Francesco Antonucci

Explanation: The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers orinsects. 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 particularplanetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. Thissharp close-upof the dying star's nebula was recorded in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, and is presented here in reprocessed colors. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dusttorussurrounding 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 thearachnologicallycorrect constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).