Cats Eye Nebula Hubble. Eleven rings, or shells, of gas make up the cat's eye. Hubble reveals the full beauty of a bull’s eye pattern of eleven or so concentric rings around the cat’s eye nebula, also known as ngc 6543.
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. To some, it may look like a cat's eye. 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.
This nebula's dying central star may have produced the outer circular concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series.
Eagle nebula keyhole nebula beautiful views of the universe orion nebula ant nebula cat's eye nebula eta carinae whirlpool galaxy crab nebula centaurus a galaxy eskimo nebula. To others, perhaps like a giant cosmic conch shell. Nasa, esa, heic, and the hubble heritage team (stsci/aura) explanation: The cat's eye nebula is a planetary nebulae, the death throes of a star blowing off its outer atmosphere into space.
