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Ptah

(33,493 posts)
Sun Jan 7, 2024, 10:53 AM Jan 2024

Astronomy Picture of the Day - 2024 January 7 The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray



Explanation: To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a giant cosmic conch shell. It is actually one of the brightest and most highly detailed planetary nebula known, composed of gas expelled in the brief yet glorious phase near the end of life of a Sun-like star. This nebula's dying central star may have produced the outer circular concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. The formation of the beautiful, complex-yet-symmetric inner structures, however, is not well understood. The featured image is a composite of a digitally sharpened Hubble Space Telescope image with X-ray light captured by the orbiting Chandra Observatory. The exquisite floating space statue spans over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into this Cat's Eye, humanity may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution ... in about 5 billion years.


https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240107.html


Free APOD Lecture January 9, 2024 to the Amateur Astronomers of Association of New York
Date:
January 9
Time:
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM EST

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Astronomy Picture of the Day - 2024 January 7 The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray (Original Post) Ptah Jan 2024 OP
Fantastic! Looks like a conch to me Deuxcents Jan 2024 #1
BURP AllaN01Bear Jan 2024 #2
Also looks like a beautiful flower. 2naSalit Jan 2024 #3
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