                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                  2019 May 1
                                      [2]
                  The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray
  Image Credit: NASA [3] , ESA [4] , Hubble Legacy Archive [5] ; Chandra X-ray
                                  Obs. [6] ;
                    Processing & Copyright: Rudy Pohl [7]

Explanation: To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a
giant cosmic conch [8]  shell. It is actually one of brightest and most highly
detailed planetary nebula [9]  known, composed of gas expelled in the brief
yet glorious phase near the end of life of a Sun-like star. This nebula [10]
's dying central star may have produced the outer circular concentric shells
[11] by shrugging [12]  off outer [13] layers [14]  in a series of regular
convulsions. The formation [15]  of the beautiful, complex-yet-symmetric inner
structures, however, is not well understood [16] . The featured image [17]  is
a composite of a digitally sharpened Hubble Space Telescope [18]  image with
X-ray [19]  light captured by [20]  the orbiting Chandra Observatory [21] .
The exquisite floating space statue spans over half a light-year [22]  across.
Of course, gazing into this Cat's Eye [23] , humanity may well be seeing the
fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase [24]  of
evolution ... in about 5 billion years.

                        Tomorrow's picture: open space

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [36] (MTU [37] ) & Jerry Bonnell [38]
                                  (UMCP [39] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [40] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [41]
              A service of: ASD [42]  at NASA [43]  / GSFC [44]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [45]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1905/CatsEye_HubblePohl_1278.jpg
  [3] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [4] https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA
  [5] https://hla.stsci.edu/
  [6] http://chandra.harvard.edu/about/
  [7] https://www.astrobin.com/395223/B/?nc=user
  [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch
  [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula
  [10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0VJ1K93PM
  [11] https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004A%26A...417..637C/abstract
  [12] ap011003.html
  [13] ap031101.html
  [14] ap100509.html
  [15] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOA-19n4tiQ
  [16] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012ApJ...759L..28P
  [17] https://www.flickr.com/photos/rudypohl/40388468763/in/dateposted/
  [18] http://www.stsci.edu/hst/HST_overview
  [19] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/11_xrays
  [20] http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/openFITS/multiwavelength_data.html
  [21] http://chandra.harvard.edu/about/
  [22] https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/light-year/en/
  [23] ap031101.html
  [24] planetary_nebulae.html
  [25] ap190430.html
  [26] archivepix.html
  [27] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [28] lib/aptree.html
  [29] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [30] calendar/allyears.html
  [31] /apod.rss
  [32] lib/edlinks.html
  [33] lib/about_apod.html
  [34] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190501
  [35] ap190502.html
  [36] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [37] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [38] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [39] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [40] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [41] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [42] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [43] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [44] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [45] http://www.mtu.edu/
