Meanwhile.....elsewhere in the Universe on this day, three thousand years ago...

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Cat's Eye Nebula NGC 6543 nasa jpeg
larger image:
www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=126826210&size=l
The full beauty of the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is revealed in this new, detailed view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The image from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) shows a bull's eye pattern of eleven or even more concentric rings, or shells, around the Cat's Eye. Each 'ring' is actually the edge of a spherical bubble seen projected onto the sky -- that's why it appears bright along its outer edge.

Observations suggest the star ejected its mass in a series of pulses at 1,500-year intervals. These convulsions created dust shells, each of which contain as much mass as all of the planets in our solar system combined (still only one percent of the Sun's mass). These concentric shells make a layered, onion-skin structure around the dying star. The view from Hubble is like seeing an onion cut in half, where each skin layer is discernible.

The bull's-eye patterns seen around planetary nebulae come as a surprise to astronomers because they had no expectation that episodes of mass loss at the end of stellar lives would repeat every 1,500 years. Several explanations have been proposed, including cycles of magnetic activity somewhat similar to our own Sun's sunspot cycle, the action of companion stars orbiting around the dying star, and stellar pulsations. Another school of thought is that the material is ejected smoothly from the star, and the rings are created later on due to formation of waves in the outflowing material.

Credit: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_211.html

Comments

	smile4camera says: This is what I see before a migraine. Interesting. Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )
	Bill A says: The coloring of the shells is intriguing. The coloring suggests that the different shells are radiating energy at different temperatures, with the central blue shell being the hottest. Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )
	riccardomuccio says: Nice. I wanna fly a spaceship through it and get a closer look. Posted 22 months ago. ( permalink )
	Felipe Venâncio says: I love nebulas Posted 16 months ago. ( permalink )
	pingnews.com says: Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Space for All, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group. Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )
	WaterViolet says: wonderful!!! Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

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Taken on April 10, 2006

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Meanwhile.....elsewhere in the Universe on this day, three thousand years ago...

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smile4camera says:

Bill A says:

riccardomuccio says:

Felipe Venâncio says:

pingnews.com says:

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