The Butterfly Star, often called by its designation IRAS 04302+2247, is a young stellar object in the constellation Taurus, near the dark nebula LDN 1536b in the Taurus molecular cloud. Classified as a class I protostar, it is surrounded by an edge-on protoplanetary disk and a bipolar reflection nebula that resembles the wings of a butterfly; the star itself is obscured by the disk.
This object was first catalogued in 1990 by the IRAS satellite. Its discovery was announced in 1997, when it was nicknamed the "Butterfly star in Taurus" due to the appearance of its surrounding nebula. The name Butterfly Star has been used in subsequent studies and was officially approved by the IAU Working Group on Star Names on 13 June 2026.
The Butterfly Star's circumstellar disk is seen nearly edge-on, with an inclination of to the plane of the sky. The gas disk has a radius of (), while the dust disk is smaller with a radius of 310 au. An inner, potentially planet-forming region of the disk is within ≲80–120 au. The disk is thought to have a total mass of . The central star is likely a T Tauri star.
See also List of resolved circumstellar disks Flying Saucer, another edge-on protoplanetary disk HH 30, another edge-on protoplanetary disk Tau 042021, another edge-on protoplanetary disk
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