Cat's Eye Nebula Age
The Cats Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Dragon.
Cat's eye nebula age. A classic planetary nebula the Cats Eye NGC 6543 represents a final brief yet glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star. 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. The other nebulosity much fainter was apparently ejected from the star previously every 1500 years or so.
The Cats Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Draco. Structurally it is one of the most complex of the known nebulae. The Cats Eye Nebula.
Added to the New General Catalogue over a century ago with the easily remembered designation NGC 6543 but commonly called the Cats Eye. Previously this was thought to be composed of stars. His early work was devoted to the study of planetary nebulae.
Heres my image of the Cats Eye Nebula NGC 6543 in Bi-Colour HαOiii. It has been expanding ever since as can be seen by comparing Hubble images taken in 1994 1997 2000 and 2002. The Spectacular Cats Eye Planetary Nebula 33 Thousands of years ago a star reached the end of its life and began to eject its outer layers forming one of the most complex planetary nebulae in the sky.
The central star will continue to expand for another 10000 years give or take just a tiny fraction of its total lifespan until the central star runs out of atmosphere. The nebula was discovered by William Herschelon February 15 1786 and was the first planetary nebula to be observed with a spectroscope by William Hugginsin 1864. The full beauty of the Cats Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is revealed in this new detailed view from NASAs Hubble Space Telescope.
Planetary nebulae are like snowflakes. Huggins observations were the first indication that planetary nebulae consist of extremely rarefiedgases. Though the Cats Eye Nebula was one of the first planetary nebulae to be discovered it is one of the most complex such nebulae seen in space.