Astronomers capture photo of rare ‘space butterfly’

A picture of NGC 2899- a bubble of gas that resembles a butterfly has been captured by astronomers

The astronomers used the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO)  Large Telescope in northern Chile to spot the NGC 2899. The high-resolution instrument was one of the first to be installed on ESO’s VLT

The space butterfly is located between 3000 and 6500 light-years away, in the Southern constellation of Vela, also known as The Sails. The temperature of this gas bubble can reach up to 10,000 degrees.

This image was created under the ESO Cosmic Gems program, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes