Explanation: The Butterfly Nebula is only thousands of years old. As a central star of a binary system aged, it threw off its outer envelopes of gas in a strong stellar wind. The remaining stellar core is so hot it ionizes the previously ejected gas, causing it to glow. The different colors of this planetary nebula are determined by small differences in its composition. This bipolar nebula will continue to shine brightly for only a few thousand more years, after which its central star will fade and become a white dwarf star. The above picture is one of the first ever taken by the Very Large Telescope (VLT), a new 8.2-meter telescope located in Chile.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: bipolar - planetary nebula - butterfly nebula - zvezdnyi veter - belyi karlik - Planetarnaya tumannost' Publikacii so slovami: bipolar - planetary nebula - butterfly nebula - zvezdnyi veter - belyi karlik - Planetarnaya tumannost'
Sm. takzhe: M27: eto ne kometa Dzhons-Emberson-1 Sharpless 308: tumannost' Golova Del'fina Kol'cevaya tumannost' vokrug WR 134 Kol'ca vokrug tumannosti Kol'co HFG1 i Eibell 6: planetarnye tumannosti NGC 2440: kokon novogo belogo karlika Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>