Photo credit: ESO
The European Southern Observatory captured another stunning image with the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and this time, it’s of NGC 2899. this planetary nebula, or a giant cloud of gas that forms around an unexploded star, has a pattern of blue, purple as well as violet that resembles a butterfly.
It’s located between 3,000-6,500 light years away from Earth in the constellation Vela, visible in the Southern Hemisphere, a nd gets its colors from ultraviolet radiation that lights up the shells of gas surrounding the star. However, these patterns and colors only appear for a few thousand years before they break up.
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Resembling a butterfly with its symmetrical structure, beautiful colours, and intricate patterns, this striking bubble of gas, NGC 2899, appears to float and flutter across the sky in this new picture from our VLT,” said ESO.
