by APOD Robot » Sun Jan 07, 2024 5:05 am
The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray
Explanation: To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a giant cosmic
conch shell. It is actually one of the brightest and most highly detailed
planetary nebula known, composed of gas expelled in the brief yet glorious phase near the end of life of a Sun-like star.
This nebula's dying central star may have produced the outer circular
concentric shells by
shrugging off
outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. The
formation of the beautiful, complex-yet-symmetric
inner structures, however, is
not well understood. The
featured image is a composite of a digitally sharpened
Hubble Space Telescope image with
X-ray light
captured by the orbiting
Chandra Observatory. The exquisite floating space statue spans over half a
light-year across. Of course,
gazing into this Cat's Eye, humanity may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own
planetary nebula phase of evolution ... in
about 5 billion years.
[url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240107.html] [img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_240107.jpg[/img] [size=150]The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a giant cosmic [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch]conch[/url] [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch#/media/File:Melongena_corona_2.jpg]shell[/url]. It is actually one of the brightest and most highly detailed [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula]planetary nebula[/url] known, composed of gas expelled in the brief yet glorious phase near the end of life of a Sun-like star. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0VJ1K93PM]This nebula[/url]'s dying central star may have produced the outer circular [url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004A%26A...417..637C/abstract]concentric shells[/url] by [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011003.html]shrugging[/url] off [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap031101.html]outer[/url] [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200607.html]layers[/url] in a series of regular convulsions. The [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOA-19n4tiQ]formation[/url] of the beautiful, complex-yet-symmetric [url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012ApJ...759L..28P/abstract]inner structures[/url], however, is [url=https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/banner-three-pets-atttentive-thinking-600nw-2136132101.jpg]not well understood[/url]. The [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/rudypohl/40388468763/in/dateposted/]featured image[/url] is a composite of a digitally sharpened [url=https://www.stsci.edu/hst]Hubble Space Telescope[/url] image with [url=https://science.nasa.gov/ems/11_xrays]X-ray[/url] light [url=http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/openFITS/multiwavelength_data.html]captured by[/url] the orbiting [url=http://chandra.harvard.edu/about/]Chandra Observatory[/url]. The exquisite floating space statue spans over half a [url=https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/light-year/]light-year[/url] across. Of course, [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220710.html]gazing into this Cat's Eye[/url], humanity may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/planetary_nebulae.html]planetary nebula phase[/url] of evolution ... in [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future#/media/File:Red_Giant_Earth_warm.jpg]about 5 billion years[/url].
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