A team of astronomers has captured stunning pictures of the birth of a bipolar 'planetary nebula'.

A planetary nebula is a cloud of ionized gas that's been expelled by a red giant or dying star. The pictures of nebula surrounding L2 Puppis were captured by using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope or VLT, in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.

The astronomers compared the bipolar or twin lobed planetary nebula to a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.

The scientists also confirmed the presence of dimmer companion star whose stellar wind apparently interacts with that of L2 Puppis. It's believed that this companion star, located about 300 million kilometers from L2 Puppis, is also a red giant, but is much smaller and younger.

In order to study faint objects very close to bright stars, the research team used the VLT's new SPHERE/ZIMPOL instrument, an extreme adaptive optics and polarimetry system. The new observations with SPHERE-ZIMPOL showed the dust that surrounds L2 Puppis in exquisite detail.

Although previous studies had identified the nebula's presence and signs of a companion star, the images weren't sharp enough. Since the confirmation is in hand, the researchers think that L2 Puppis and its companion are likely to be in the early stages of forming a bipolar planetary nebula.

The paper outlining the astronomer's findings has been published by the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.