Hubble’s Inside the Image: Cat’s Eye Nebula

One of the most famous planetary nebulae visible in the night sky is the Cat’s Eye Nebula or as known also as NGC 6543. It lies about 3,300 light years from the Earth in the Draco constellation and looks very much like a cat’s eye when observed through telescopes.

This particular nebula was observed by the famous astronomer William Herschel in the year 1786. The structure that we have for it is quite large and interactive; ordained with patterns of shells and swirling filaments which are essentially, the excreted outer shells of a dying star that was proportionate to the size of our sun.

The central star is a hot white dwarf, and it emits light to the surrounding gases making the nebula to be a bright colourful object particularly in green and blue. What astronomers can learn from The Cat’s Eye Nebula is information about the last stages of stellar evolution and the formation of such incredible formations.