# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CQlzZAdBtGk
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11733401-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/f8cb05216b.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-06-26T16:48:44.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

🦋 🥊 It might look like a butterfly, but stings like a bee.

Don’t let those graceful wings fool you. It might look like NASAHubble captured an image of a peaceful cosmic butterfly, but the truth is vastly more violent. With a wingspan covering over 3 light-years, the Butterfly Nebula is ejecting layers of gas from a dying star located at its center. 

Streams of intense ultraviolet radiation cause the cast-off material to glow, but eventually the nebula will fade and leave behind only a small stellar corpse called a white dwarf. Our middle-aged Sun can expect a similar fate once it runs out of fuel in about six billion years.

📲 Check out Instagram story to screenshot this as your new wallpaper! 

Credit: NASA 

#ButterfliesOfInstagram #Nebula #Cosmic #NASA #CoolFacts #Exploration

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- **Likes:** 1,799,163
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- **Comments:** 6,320

## Tags

nasa, coolfacts, cosmic, nebula, exploration, butterfliesofinstagram

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