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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                   2022 July 10   
      
                       In the Center of the Cat's Eye Nebula   
          Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Raul   
                                    Villaverde   
      
      Explanation: Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off   
      shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope   
      reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), to be one of the most complex   
      planetary nebulae known. Spanning half a light-year, the features seen   
      in the Cat's Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright   
      central object may actually be a binary star system. The term planetary   
      nebula, used to describe this general class of objects, is misleading.   
      Although these objects may appear round and planet-like in small   
      telescopes, high resolution images with large telescopes reveal them to   
      be stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown off in the late stages of   
      stellar evolution. Gazing into this Cat's Eye, astronomers may well be   
      seeing more than detailed structure, they may be seeing the fate of our   
      Sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution ...   
      in about 5 billion years.   
      
                       Tomorrow's picture: sahara andromeda   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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