28.11.2025
The 8.1-meter Gemini South telescope, located in the Andes, saw first light on Nov. 26, 2001.
The Butterfly Nebula imaged for the 25th anniversary of the Gemini South telescope. (Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA. Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab)/T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab)/M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab))
The Gemini South telescope is turning 25, and astronomers are celebrating its birthday with a dazzling new image of the Butterfly Nebula.
Also cataloged as NGC 6302, this planetary nebula is located in the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion. Its precise distance is unclear, but astronomers think it's between 2,500 and 3,800 light-years away.
At the heart of the Butterfly Nebula is a white dwarf radiating at an incredible 250,000 degrees Celsius (450,000 degrees Fahrenheit). It was once a normal star that was a bit more massive than the sun. But when it began to reach the end of its life, it expanded to become a red giant, which then cast off its outer layers to form the nebula. What remained was its hot core in the form of the white dwarf with a mass two-thirds that of the sun. This is the fate of all stars with less than eight times the sun's mass.
Slower-moving material was ejected from the red giant's equatorial zone, forming the dark, dusty belt in the body of the butterfly in this image. The wings were then formed by faster-moving perpendicular outflows and sculpted further by a hot wind of radiation that signaled the star's final gasps.
That radiation wind energized the material in the nebula, heating it to 36,000 F (20,000 C) and ionizing the gas there. The red in the image indicates ionized hydrogen, and blue shows ionized oxygen. In about 5 billion years, the sun will also turn into a white dwarf surrounded by a pretty planetary nebula.
The Butterfly Nebula was chosen as the target for the 8.1-meter (26.6 feet) Gemini South telescope's 25th anniversary image by Chilean school students taking part in the Gemini First Light Anniversary Image Contest.
Located atop Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes, the Gemini South telescope is one-half of the International Gemini Observatory, which also incorporates its twin, Gemini North, on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Both telescopes are operated by the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, with funding from Brazil, Canada, Chile and the United Kingdom.
The Gemini telescopes were the brainchild of astronomer Fred Gillett. The aim of the telescopes was to provide continuous coverage of the sky from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, using identical telescopes with adaptive optics and the capability to conduct near-infrared wide-field surveys. First light on Gemini North took place in June 1999, and on Gemini South in November 2000. Gillett died only a few months later, and Gemini North is named the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini Telescope in his honor.
Quelle: SC
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Butterfly Star flaps its rainbow wings | Space photo of the day for Sept. 4, 2025
This young star is surrounded by a protoplanetary disk, separating the "wings" of the butterfly.
The James Webb Space Telescope recently caught this stunning image of a young star with its protoplanetary disk. (Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Villenave et al.)
Across the galaxy, stars are born in immense clouds of gas and dust — stellar nurseries where gravity coaxes material to coalesce and ignite. Around many of these newborn stars, the surrounding gas forms protoplanetary disks, dense fields of material from which planets can be born.
By studying these disks, astronomers travel back in time to glimpse events similar to those that shaped our own solar system over 4.5 billion years ago.
What is it?
Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) caught one of these protoplanetary disks and its young star in a edge-on view. The star, classified as IRAS 04302+2247, or IRAS 04302, is a protostar, with its disk measuring at around 40 billion miles (65 billion km) wide.
Some of the dust helped to dim the star's brightness, making it easier for JWST to capture its stunning details, which include two reflecting nebulas on either side of the disk, inspiring astronomers to call IRAS 04302 the 'Butterfly Star.'
Where is it?
The Butterfly Star is located around 525 light-years away in the Taurus star-forming region.
Why is it amazing?
Not only is this image stunning, it also provides a unique view into how protoplanetary disks evolve over time. Capturing a protoplanetary disk from the edge-on perspective is rather rare and allows astronomers to study how dusts grains settle, grow and migrate within the disk.
Understanding these dynamics is a key piece in the puzzle of planet formation, as dust settles into larger layers including pebbles and rocks, and eventually planetary cores.
Quelle: SC