The
Cat's Eye nebula gets a new look from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and
Hubble Space Telescope.
The
object known formally as NGC 6543 is a planetary nebula that represents a
future snapshot of what our sun might look like several billion years from now.
In its red giant phase, our sun will begin to run out of fuel and shed its outer
layers. The remaining hot core eventually collapses to form a white dwarf star
that pushes the ejected atmosphere away to form colorful filamentary
structures.
Chandra's
X-ray data appears in blue and shows a cloud of multi-million-degree gas
surrounding the central star. Astronomers can compare where the X-rays sit in
relation to the red and purple structures seen by Hubble's optical lens. The
combined image shows the material shed by the star continuing to expand outward
at a speed of about 4 million miles per hour.
— NASA/CXC and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/STScI
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