Pretty Hubble pic- Cat's Eye Nebula

[n2doc]

The Cat's Eye Nebula from Hubble
Credit: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) , Posted on: Sunday, 24 April 2011, 07:28 CDT Download full size image

Staring across interstellar space, the alluring Cat's Eye nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. 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 sharp Hubble Space Telescope image, the truly cosmic eye is over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into the 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.

http://www.redorbit.com/images/images-of-the-day/universe/

[classof56]

1. Amazing.

Intriguing and astoundingly beautiful. Thanks for posting!

Peace

[Trajan]

2. I have this pic on my phone ....

I sometimes gotta make it the wallpaper and grok it in it's delightful wonderfulness ...

[kedrys]

3. My laptop wallpaper

It's gorgeous. :)