Credit & Copyright: Arsen R. Hajian
(USNO),
Yervant Terzian (Cornell)
Explanation:
Watch closely.
As this animation blinks between two
Hubble Space Telescope images
of NGC 6543 - the first from 1994 and the second from 1997 -
the intricate filaments of this nebula are seen to shift.
The shift is due to the actual expansion of this gaseous shroud
shed by a dying star!
NGC 6543 is more popularly known as
the Cat's Eye Nebula.
Classified as a "planetary nebula", its complex,
interwoven shells of expanding gas have been castoff by the central star
as it evolves from a red giant to its final white dwarf phase.
The planetary nebula phase of a star's life is known to be
relatively brief, lasting 10,000 years or so.
In fact,
combined with other data,
this nebula's detectable shift over a three year period
allows the expansion age of its bright inner shells to be estimated
at only around 1,000 years while its
distance can be gauged at about 3,000 light-years.
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planetary nebula - NGC 6543 - Planetarnaya tumannost'
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