Planetary nebulae don\u2019t actually have anything to do with planets: they\u2019re called so because they often have a spherical, puffed-out appearance like a planet.<\/p>
- Nebulae that look like animals<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li><\/ul>
The Cat’s Eye Nebula. Credit: Michael Breite, Stefan Heutz, Wolfgang Ries \/ CCDGuide.com<\/figcaption><\/figure> Planetary nebulae are one of the final stages of a Sun-like star, as they run out of fuel and begin losing their outer layers into space.<\/p>
As a result, nebulae<\/a> like the NGC 6543 give us a glimpse of our own Sun\u2019s fate.<\/p>
Is this what will happen to out Solar System in future<\/a>?<\/p>
The nebula’s dying star<\/strong><\/h2>
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A 1994 Hubble image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula. Credit: Credit: J.P. Harrington and K.J. Borkowski (University of Maryland), and NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure> At the centre of the Cat’s Eye Nebula is a dying Wolf Rayet star, the sort of which can be seen in the Webb Telescope’s image of WR 124<\/a>.<\/p>
The Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula\u2019s central star shines at mag. 11.4.<\/p>
Hubble Space Telescope<\/a> images show a sort of dart board pattern of concentric rings emanating outwards from the centre.<\/p>
These are shells of cosmic dust being ejected out into space.<\/p>
Each ring that can be seen in the Hubble images is the edge of a one of these spherical shells expanding outwards.<\/p>
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The Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula by Douglas Struble, Taylor, Michigan, USA, 8 June 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure> Astronomers observing the Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula with Hubble deduced that the star that produces the cosmic cloud ejects material in pulses of energy every 1,500 years or so.<\/p>
Each dust shell ejected by the star contains about the same amount of mass as all the planets in our Solar System<\/a>.<\/p>
These expanding shell patterns could be a result of cycles of activity that the star is experiencing, just like our own Sun\u2019s solar cycle<\/a>.<\/p>
Or perhaps the material is being ejected smoothly, but the rings are generated at a later stage by waves rippling through the expanding material.<\/p>
How to see the Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula<\/strong><\/h2>
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Chart showing the location of the Cat’s Eye Nebula in Draco. Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/figcaption><\/figure> You can see the Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula (NGC6543) from Earth by locating the constellation Draco and observing it through a small telescope.<\/p>
This bright planetary nebula is a favourite of astronomers, given its interesting shape and structure.<\/p>
Higher-powered telescopes will reveal a blue-green disc that is spectacular, and makes it really worth tracking the nebula down.<\/p>
Find it within a loop of Draco, the Dragon, 7.2\u00b0 west of mag. 3.1 star Altais.<\/p>
The Cat’s Eye nebula shines at mag. 9.8 and has an apparent diameter of 20 arcseconds.<\/p>
It appears through smaller telescopes as a long smudge, but if you have steady seeing and a telescope over 200mm, you could use high magnification and averted vision<\/a> to see if you can see faint detail in the inner regions.<\/p>
Photographing the Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula<\/strong><\/h2>
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The Cat’s Eye Nebula photographed by Franz Klauser \/ CCDGuide.com<\/figcaption><\/figure> The simplest camera set-up for photographing a planetary nebula is probably a DSLR camera and a medium focal-length lens on a static tripod.<\/p>
The Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula is just about bright enough that, if you can get to reasonably dark skies, you should be able to pick up signs of it with that setup.<\/p>