Astronomy: Cat's Eye Nebula

Astronomy: Cat's Eye Nebula
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Stars & Stellar Phenomena
Cat's Eye Nebula The Cat's Eye Nebula (also known as NGC 6543 and Caldwell 6) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Draco, discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786. It was the first planetary nebula whose spectrum was investigated by the English amateur astronomer William Huggins, demonstrating that planetary nebulae were gaseous and not stellar in nature.

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Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Cat's Eye Nebula The Cat's Eye Nebula (also known as NGC 6543 and Caldwell 6) is a planetary nebula in the northern c onstellation of Draco, discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786. It was the first planetary nebula whose spectrum was investigated by the English amateur astronomer William Huggins, demonstrating that planetary nebulae were gaseous and not stellar in nature. Structurally, the object has had high-resolution images by the Hubble Space Telescope revealing knots, jets, bubbles and complex arcs, being illuminated by the central hot planetary nebula nucleus (PNN).

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Why Cat's Eye Nebula matters: Stars are the engines of the cosmos -- they forge the chemical elements, light up galax ies, and create the conditions that make planets and life possible. It is a well-studied object that has been observed from radio to X-ray wavelengths. At the centre of the Cat's Eye Nebula is a dying Wolf–Rayet star, the sort of which can be seen in the Webb Telescope's image of WR 124. The Cat's Eye Nebula's central star shines at magnitude +11.4. Hubble Space Telescope images show a sort of dart board pattern of concentric rings emanating outwards from the centre.

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Source: Internal
Deep dive: Cat's Eye Nebula At the centre of the Cat's Eye Nebula is a dying Wolf–Ra yet star, the sort of which can be seen in the Webb Telescope's image of WR 124. The Cat's Eye Nebula's central star shines at magnitude +11.4. Hubble Space Telescope images show a sort of dart board pattern of concentric rings emanating outwards from the centre. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Eye_Nebula (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)