Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 March 24 
Posted on 03/23/2002 8:20:32 PM PST by petuniasevan
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 March 24
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.
Second day in a row, astronomy is cool bump!
An incredible photo.... proof that God is an artist in his spare time.
Just pinging you all to this fascinating and informative thread in case you might like to be added to the ping list. The pictures are always stunning and there is LOTS of information to go along with them.:)
'tis a wondrous universe that we are privileged to live in!
Have a glorious Palm Sunday!
{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}
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