Planetary nebula NGC 6302, commonly known as the Bug Nebula or Butterfly Nebula. NGC 6302 lies within the Milky Way, roughly 3,800 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star’s outer layers, expelled over about 2,200 years.
Each of these Hubble images is a composite of separate monochromatic exposures of narrow wavelength ranges. The colors result from assigning different hues to each wavelength range. NASA released these images on September 9, 2009, to show off the capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which astronauts installed during a servicing mission last May. | via:
