Cat's Eye Nebula Age

Structurally it is one of the most complex of the known nebulae.

Cat's eye nebula age. The central nebula very bright was formed 1000 years ago. When a Sun-like star nears the. In 1994 Hubble first revealed NGC 6543s surprisingly.

The image from Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys ACS shows a bulls eye pattern of eleven or even more concentric rings or shells around the Cats Eye. It has been expanding ever since as can be seen by comparing Hubble images taken in 1994 1997 2000 and 2002. The size and expansion rate of the Cats Eye suggest the nebula is just 1000 years old.

Visually it is similar to the cats eye and was named accordingly. The Cats Eye Nebula has a complex intricate structure which includes knots bubbles concentric gas shells and jets of gas as seen in hi-res images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994. The alluring Cats Eye nebula however lies three thousand light-years from Earth across interstellar space.

His early work was devoted to the study of planetary nebulae. Added to the New General Catalogue over a century ago with the easily remembered designation NGC 6543 but commonly called the Cats Eye. The nebulas structural complexity may be the result of material being expelled from a binary central star but the existence of a binary companion has not yet been.

Though the Cats Eye Nebula was one of the first planetary nebulae to be discovered it is one of the most complex such nebulae seen in space. Approximately 1000 years ago the pattern of mass loss suddenly changed and the Cats Eye Nebula itself started forming inside the dusty shells. The Cats Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Dragon.

The Discovery the Cats Eye Nebula. The Cat Eye Nebula NGC 6543 is a mythical object from the deep sky of the Northern Hemisphere. It is a Planetary Nebula expanding gas shell ejected from an end-of-life star in the constellation of the Dragon whose age is estimated at only 1000 years and the distance at only 5200 light years.