Astronomy Picture of the Day
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
professional astronomer.
2019 May 1
[2]
The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray
Image Credit: NASA [3] , ESA [4] , Hubble Legacy Archive [5] ; Chandra X-ray
Obs. [6] ;
Processing & Copyright: Rudy Pohl [7]
Explanation: To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a
giant cosmic conch [8] shell. It is actually one of brightest and most highly
detailed planetary nebula [9] known, composed of gas expelled in the brief
yet glorious phase near the end of life of a Sun-like star. This nebula [10]
's dying central star may have produced the outer circular concentric shells
[11] by shrugging [12] off outer [13] layers [14] in a series of regular
convulsions. The formation [15] of the beautiful, complex-yet-symmetric inner
structures, however, is not well understood [16] . The featured image [17] is
a composite of a digitally sharpened Hubble Space Telescope [18] image with
X-ray [19] light captured by [20] the orbiting Chandra Observatory [21] .
The exquisite floating space statue spans over half a light-year [22] across.
Of course, gazing into this Cat's Eye [23] , humanity may well be seeing the
fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase [24] of
evolution ... in about 5 billion years.
Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [36] (MTU [37] ) & Jerry Bonnell [38]
(UMCP [39] )
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [40] .
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [41]
A service of: ASD [42] at NASA [43] / GSFC [44]
& Michigan Tech. U. [45]
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Site notes:
[1] archivepix.html
[2] image/1905/CatsEye_HubblePohl_1278.jpg
[3] https://www.nasa.gov/
[4] https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA
[5] https://hla.stsci.edu/
[6] http://chandra.harvard.edu/about/
[7] https://www.astrobin.com/395223/B/?nc=user
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebul...
[10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0VJ1K93PM
[11] https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004A%26A.....
[12] ap011003.html
[13] ap031101.html
[14] ap100509.html
[15] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOA-19n4tiQ
[16] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012ApJ...759L....
[17] https://www.flickr.com/photos/rudypohl/403884...
[18] http://www.stsci.edu/hst/HST_overview
[19] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/11_xrays
[20] http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/openFITS/mul...
[21] http://chandra.harvard.edu/about/
[22] https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/light-year/en/
[23] ap031101.html
[24] planetary_nebulae.html
[25] ap190430.html
[26] archivepix.html
[27] lib/apsubmit2015.html
[28] lib/aptree.html
[29] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
[30] calendar/allyears.html
[31] /apod.rss
[32] lib/edlinks.html
[33] lib/about_apod.html
[34] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
[35] ap190502.html
[36] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
[37] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
[38] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
[39] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
[40] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
[41] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
[42] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
[43] https://www.nasa.gov/
[44] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
[45] http://www.mtu.edu/
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