Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Monoceros (Mon)  ·  Contains:  HD293368  ·  HD293369  ·  HD293370  ·  HD293371  ·  HD293372  ·  HD293373  ·  HD293374  ·  HD293378  ·  HD293379  ·  HD54739  ·  NGC 2346  ·  PK215+03.1
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NGC 2346 Butterfly Nebula, rdhand
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NGC 2346 Butterfly Nebula

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NGC 2346 Butterfly Nebula, rdhand
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NGC 2346 Butterfly Nebula

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Description

NGC 2346 is a planetary nebula informally known as the Butterfly Nebula.  The nebula is bipolar in form and the center is girded by an expanding belt of ionized gas.  It is moving away from the Sun at 47.00 km/s.  At the heart of the bipolar planetary nebula is a pair of close stars orbiting each other once every sixteen days. The formation of the  butterfly shape began millions of years ago, when the stars were farther apart. The more massive star expanded to encompass its binary companion, causing the two to spiral closer and expel rings of gas. Later, bubbles of hot gas emerged as the core of the massive red giant star became uncovered. In billions of years, our sun will become a red giant and emit a planetary nebula but in a more classic circular shape because the has no binary star companion.

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NGC 2346 Butterfly Nebula, rdhand

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Cloudy Nights

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Planetary Nebula