Cat's Eye Nebula Age
Planetary nebulae are like snowflakes.
Cat's eye nebula age. The Cat Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is a mythical object from the deep sky of the Northern Hemisphere. The Cats Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Dragon. To some it may look like a cats eye.
It is a Planetary Nebula expanding gas shell ejected from an end-of-life star in the constellation of the Dragon whose age is estimated at only 1000 years and the distance at only 5200 light years. A planetary nebula forms when Sun-like stars gently eject their outer gaseous layers that form bright nebulae with amazing and confounding shapes. The other nebulosity much fainter was apparently ejected from the star previously every 1500 years or so.
The full beauty of the Cats Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is revealed in this new detailed view from NASAs Hubble Space Telescope. Huggins observations were the first indication that planetary nebulae consist of extremely rarefiedgases. Previously this was thought to be composed of stars.
The Cat Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is a mythical object from the deep sky of the Northern Hemisphere. A classic planetary nebula the Cats Eye NGC 6543 represents a final brief yet glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star. The Cats Eye Nebula was first observed on February 15 1786 by William Herschel.
Added to the New General Catalogue over a century ago with the easily remembered designation NGC 6543 but commonly called the Cats Eye. His early work was devoted to the study of planetary nebulae. Its haunting symmetries are seen in the very central region of this stunning false-color picture processed to reveal the enormous but extremely faint halo of gaseous material over three light-years across which surrounds the brighter familiar planetary nebula.
There he built himself a telescope and started to study astronomy. It is a Planetary Nebula expanding gas shell ejected from an end-of-life star in the constellation of the Dragon whose age is estimated at only 1000 years and the distance at only 5200 light years. The Cats Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Draco.