Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On April 23, 2011 @ 10:50 pm In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
[1]
The Cat’s Eye Nebula from Hubble
Credit: NASA [2], ESA [3], HEIC [4], and The Hubble Heritage Team [5] (STScI [6]/AURA [7])
Explanation: Staring across interstellar space, the alluring Cat’s Eye [8] nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. A classic planetary nebula [9], the Cat’s Eye (NGC 6543) represents a final, brief yet glorious phase [10] in the life of a sun-like star. This nebula [11]‘s dying central star may have produced the simple, outer pattern of dusty concentric shells [12] by shrugging [13] off outer [14] layers [15] in a series of regular convulsions. But the formation of the beautiful, more complex inner structures is not well understood [16]. Seen so clearly in this sharp Hubble [17] Space Telescope image, the truly cosmic eye is over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into the Cat’s Eye [14], astronomers may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase [18] of evolution … in about 5 billion years [19].
Visit the NASA/JPL website to view more Astronomy Pictures of the Day [20]
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URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/04/23/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-61/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/catseye4_hst_900.jpg
[2] NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
[3] ESA: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html
[4] HEIC: http://www.spacetelescope.org/about_us/heic/
[5] The Hubble Heritage Team: http://heritage.stsci.edu/index.html
[6] STScI: http://www.stsci.edu/
[7] AURA: http://www.aura-astronomy.org/
[8] alluring Cat’s Eye: http://heritage.stsci.edu/2004/27/
[9] planetary nebula: http://www.seds.org/messier/planetar.html
[10] yet glorious phase: http://www.astro.washington.edu/balick/WFPC2/
[11] This nebula: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0VJ1K93PM
[12] concentric shells: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0401056
[13] shrugging: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011003.html
[14] outer: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap031101.html
[15] layers: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100509.html
[16] not well understood: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061112.html
[17] this sharp Hubble: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/27/image/a/
[18] planetary nebula phase: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula
[19] 5 billion years: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1997/38/astrofile/
[20] Astronomy Pictures of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
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