Explanation: To some, it may look like a cat's eye. The alluring Cat's Eye nebula, however, lies three thousand light-years from Earth across interstellar space. 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 digitally sharpened Hubble Space Telescope image, the truly cosmic eye is over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into this 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.

<<  Iyun'  >> Pn Vt Sr Cht Pt Sb Vs         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30   1995   1996   1997 1998   1999   2000 2001   2002   2003 2004   2005   2006 2007   2008   2009 2010   2011   2012 2013   2014   2015 2016   2017   2018 2019   2020   2021 2022   2023   2024

Yanvar' Fevral' Mart Aprel' Mai Iyun' Iyul' Avgust Sentyabr' Oktyabr' Noyabr' Dekabr'

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula - tumannost' Koshachii glaz Publikacii so slovami: NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula - tumannost' Koshachii glaz
Sm. takzhe: Tumannost' Koshachii Glaz v optike i rentgenovskih luchah Koshachii glaz na glubokom shirokougol'nom izobrazhenii Galo vokrug Koshach'ego Glaza V centre tumannosti Koshachii glaz Tumannost' Koshachii glaz ot teleskopa imeni Habbla Tumannost' Koshachii glaz Koshachii glaz: shiroko i gluboko Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>