Butterfly nebula

Posted on by

wonders-of-the-cosmos:

Butterfly nebula

The star or stars at its center are responsible for the nebula’s appearance. In their death throes, they have cast off layers of gas periodically over the past couple thousand years. The “wings” of NGC 6302 are regions of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit that are tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour.

NGC 6302 lies between 2,500 and 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.

Credit: NASA, ESA, Joel Kastner (RIT)

Mu Cephei is a very large star. An M-class supergiant some 1500 times the size of the Sun, it is one…

Posted on by

wonders-of-the-cosmos:

Mu Cephei is a very large star. An M-class supergiant some 1500 times the size of the Sun, it is one of the largest stars visible to the unaided eye, and even one of the largest in the entire Galaxy. If it replaced the Sun in our fair Solar System, Mu Cephei would easily engulf Mars and Jupiter. Historically known as Herschel’s Garnet Star, Mu Cephei is extremely red. Approximately 2800 light-years distant, the supergiant is seen near the edge of reddish emission nebula IC 1396 toward the royal northern constellation Cepheus in this telescopic view.

Image Credit: David Cruz