Stunning Space Butterfly Captured by ESO Telescope

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

[From ESO (European Southern Observatory).]

Stunning Space Butterfly Captured by ESO Telescope:

Resembling a butterfly with its symmetrical structure, beautiful colours, and intricate patterns, this striking bubble of gas - known as NGC 2899 - appears to float and flutter across the sky in this new picture from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). This object has never before been imaged in such striking detail, with even the faint outer edges of the planetary nebula glowing over the background stars.

NGC 2899's vast swathes of gas extend up to a maximum of two light-years from its centre, glowing brightly in front of the stars of the Milky Way as the gas reaches temperatures upwards of ten thousand degrees. The high temperatures are due to the large amount of radiation from the nebula's parent star, which causes the hydrogen gas in the nebula to glow in a reddish halo around the oxygen gas, in blue.

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