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Credit & Copyright: Raul Villaverde
Explanation:
To some, it may look like a cat's eye.
The
alluring Cat's Eye
nebula, however, lies three thousand light-years from Earth across interstellar space.
A classic
planetary
nebula, the Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) represents a final, brief
yet
glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star.
This nebula's dying central star may have produced the simple,
outer pattern of dusty
concentric shells
by shrugging off
outer
layers in a series of regular convulsions.
But the formation of the beautiful, more complex
inner structures is not well understood.
Seen so clearly in
this digitally reprocessed Hubble Space Telescope image,
the truly
cosmic eye
is over half a light-year across.
Of course,
gazing into this Cat's Eye,
astronomers may well be seeing
the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own
planetary nebula
phase of evolution ... in about
5 billion years.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula
Publications with words: NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula
See also: