Cat's Eye Nebula The Cat's Eye Nebula from Hubble Credit: NASA,
ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Click on
Image to Enlarge 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.