Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph)  ·  Contains:  PK010+18.2
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PK 010+18.2, M2-9 Minkowski's Butterfly, rdhand
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PK 010+18.2, M2-9 Minkowski's Butterfly

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PK 010+18.2, M2-9 Minkowski's Butterfly, rdhand
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PK 010+18.2, M2-9 Minkowski's Butterfly

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Description

PK 010+18.2, M2-9, Minkowski 2-9, M2-9 is called named Minkowski's Butterfly, Twin Jet Nebula, the Wings of a Butterfly Nebula, or just Butterfly Nebula.  It is a planetary nebula located about 2,100 light-years away from Earth.  This bipolar nebula takes the peculiar form of twin lobes of material that emanate from a central star.  The jets of gas are moving at speeds of more than 1 million km/h.  The central star is in fact a binary system composed of a white dwarf and a companion in a close orbit. The star that formed the nebula was once a red giant.  It expelled most of its outer layers and is contracting into a white dwarf, a hot, exposed stellar core, that illuminates the ejected material.

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PK 010+18.2, M2-9 Minkowski's Butterfly, rdhand

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Cloudy Nights

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Planetary Nebula