Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Cat's Eye Nebula

NASA ^ | August 26, 2012 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula to be one of the most complex planetary nebulae known. In fact, the features seen in the Cat's Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright central object may actually be a binary star system. The term planetary nebula, used to describe this general class of objects, is misleading. Although these objects may appear round and planet-like in small telescopes, high resolution images reveal them to be stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown off in the late stages of stellar evolution.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: J. P. Harrington (U. Maryland) & K. J. Borkowski (NCSU) HST, NASA]

[SunkenCiv]

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[STARWISE]

ONLY $260 is needed to end the 'Thon!
This would be a good time to help FR, click the pic .. thank you!

[onyx]

That looks like a jewel!
Thank you very much, SunkenCiv!

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure.

[ExxonPatrolUs]

[left that other site]

Magnificent!!!

[LaserJock]

One of my favorite things to do on a warm summer night is pull out my Meade SCT telescope and explore planetary nebulae. They don't look like this to the naked eye and are far more subtle, but still beautiful nonetheless.

[TheOldLady]

Somebody sent me an email with this picture attached.

He thought it was spectacularly beautiful, and I agree with him.

Thank you, Sensei!

Thank you, Mr. Civilizations!