Three thousand light-years away, a dying star is shedding shells of glowing gas. This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), one of the most complex planetary nebulae known. The features observed in the Cat’s Eye span half a light-year and are so complex that astronomers speculate that 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 from large telescopes reveal that they are stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown away in the late stages of stellar evolution. Looking into this Cat’s Eye, astronomers may well see more than detailed structure, they may see the fate of our Sun, which is destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of development in about 5 billion years.
For more read: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220710.html
Image Credit: NASA Pics
