APOD: The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical... (2024 Jan 07)

[APOD Robot]

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.

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[alex555]

When we think that this magnificent image also contains the end of an immensity of things which happened while this star had its procession of planets and perhaps also hundreds of millions of years of memories of living beings, under one form or another, and now dispersed.

[AVAO]

The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray

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It is interesting to compare the HST image with JWST (growing of 15 years difference) ...

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

and I like Webbles
(@Ann: ...even if colors come out wrong)

Click to view full size image

Original data: NASA/ESA/CSA (HST/JWST) jac berne (flickr)

[CaptainRoll]

The fate of this planet and solar system in about 5 billion years; LOL. It would be interesting to see the solar system we live in overlaid (in scale) on this image. The distance between objects when talking X light-years is just hard to comprehend.

[Christian G.]

Stars are utterly beautiful from birth to death, and on top of it their atomic legacy as they die is full of promise for future worlds!

[Chris Peterson]

The fate of this planet and solar system in about 5 billion years; LOL. It would be interesting to see the solar system we live in overlaid (in scale) on this image. The distance between objects when talking X light-years is just hard to comprehend.

This object is about the same size as the Solar System, with its outer edge located somewhere in our Oort Cloud, were they overlaid. Earth, of course, at this scale, isn't visually separable from the center star.

[johnnydeep]

Looks a bit like a Phlox flower to me.

Click to view full size image

[zendae1]

Looks a bit like a Phlox flower to me.

Click to view full size image

lol...

And to a horticultural guy like me, it begs a question I have never ever considered before: Are celestial phenomenon fragrant?

[Chris Peterson]

And to a horticultural guy like me, it begs a question I have never ever considered before: Are celestial phenomenon fragrant?

Well, the seventh planet certainly has a reputation...

[zendae1]

And to a horticultural guy like me, it begs a question I have never ever considered before: Are celestial phenomenon fragrant?

Well, the seventh planet certainly has a reputation...

And it's still waiting for that cosmic bidet...

[Fred the Cat]

And to a horticultural guy like me, it begs a question I have never ever considered before: Are celestial phenomenon fragrant? :s

Well, the seventh planet certainly has a reputation...

And it's still waiting for that cosmic bidet...

I find it illuminating that jets may arise from different astronomic objects but seem to have the same mechanism – star birth to death.

But, like a cat chasing its own tail, the tip-off is just out of reach. The bidet metaphor might be on the right tail.

[johnnydeep]

The fate of this planet and solar system in about 5 billion years; LOL. It would be interesting to see the solar system we live in overlaid (in scale) on this image. The distance between objects when talking X light-years is just hard to comprehend.

This object is about the same size as the Solar System, with its outer edge located somewhere in our Oort Cloud, were they overlaid. Earth, of course, at this scale, isn't visually separable from the center star.

Here's some context:

[Chris Peterson]

The fate of this planet and solar system in about 5 billion years; LOL. It would be interesting to see the solar system we live in overlaid (in scale) on this image. The distance between objects when talking X light-years is just hard to comprehend.

This object is about the same size as the Solar System, with its outer edge located somewhere in our Oort Cloud, were they overlaid. Earth, of course, at this scale, isn't visually separable from the center star.

Here's some context:


solar system over cays eye.jpg

Which also reveals the size of the Solar System in comparison with the orbits of the planets... the outer edge of the Oort cloud extends nearly to Alpha Centauri, well outside the green circle!

[johnnydeep]

This object is about the same size as the Solar System, with its outer edge located somewhere in our Oort Cloud, were they overlaid. Earth, of course, at this scale, isn't visually separable from the center star.

Here's some context:


solar system over cays eye.jpg

Which also reveals the size of the Solar System in comparison with the orbits of the planets... the outer edge of the Oort cloud extends nearly to Alpha Centauri, well outside the green circle!

Indeed - note the logarithmic distance scale:

Click to view full size image

[CaptainRoll]

Thanks for the explanation and responses. Daily APOD images are amazing to say the least.