C69 – Butterfly Nebula Close-Up

The Butterfly Nebula, also called Caldwell 69 and NGC 6302, is one of the brightest and most extreme planetary nebulae known. This close-up image showing details in one lobe of Caldwell 69, taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 prior to Hubble’s final servicing mission, shows impressive walls of compressed gas, laced with trailing strands and bubbling outflows. A dark, dusty torus surrounds the inner nebula (seen at the upper right). The fiery, dying star the heart of the turmoil is one of the hottest stars known, and is shrouded by a blanket of icy hailstones. Despite a sizzling temperature of at least 450,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the star itself has never been seen, as it is hidden by the blanket of dust and shines most brightly in the ultraviolet, making it hard to observe. The Bug Nebula lies about 4,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Scorpius.