2007年05月13日:哈伯望远镜的猫眼星云-（The Cat's Eye Nebula from Hubble）

2007年05月13日:哈伯望远镜的猫眼星云-（The Cat's Eye Nebula from Hubble）--原图下载

Credit: NASA,ESA,HEIC, andThe Hubble Heritage Team(STScI/AURA)
说明: 隔着星际空间凝视着我们的猫眼星云，距离地球有三千光年远。猫眼星云是个典型的行星状星云，为一颗类似太阳恒星生命周期中，最后、短暂但灿烂的谢幕式。这个行星状星云内，即将死亡的中心星，可能在一系列规律的爆发中，不停地抛掷出外层物质，因此形成了星云外围同心圆状的尘埃壳。不过，形态较複杂的美丽内围结构之成因，现在仍未能全盘了解。在这幅清晰的哈伯太空望远镜影像里，中央宇宙级猫眼的大小约有半光年。藉着探索猫眼星云，天文学家也等于看见我们太阳的宿命，将来，它也会演化到行星状星云阶段，只不过，这还得再等五十亿年。

原文：

Credit: NASA,ESA,HEIC, andThe Hubble Heritage Team(STScI/AURA)
Explanation: Staring across interstellar space, thealluring Cat's Eyenebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth.A classicplanetarynebula, the Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) representsa final, briefyetglorious phase in the life of a sun-like star.This nebula's dying central star may have produced the simple,outer pattern of dustyconcentric shellsby shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions.But the formation of the beautiful, more complexinner structures is not well understood.Seen so clearly inthis sharp Hubble SpaceTelescope image,the truly cosmic eye is over half a light-year across. Of course,gazing into the Cat's Eye,astronomers may well be seeingthe fate of our sun, destined to enter its ownplanetary nebula phase ofevolution ... in about5 billion years.