Cats Eye Nebula
by Benjamin Yeager
Title
Cats Eye Nebula
Artist
Benjamin Yeager
Medium
Photograph - Color Photo
Description
This image from NASA shows the alluring Cat's Eye Nebula which lies three thousand light-years from Earth. One of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky, the Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) is over half a light-year across and 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. Here, Hubble Space Telescope archival image data has been reprocessed to create another look the cosmic cat's eye.
Uploaded
August 23rd, 2013
Embed
Share
