Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This extraordinary planetary nebula in the constellation Draco has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure
Here, the nebula is showcased through the combined eyes of our NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and our Euclid telescope, highlighting the remarkable complexity of stellar death.
Though primarily designed to map the distant Universe, Euclid captures the Cat’s Eye Nebula as part of its deep imaging surveys. In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colourful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the centre formed.
Within this broad view of the nebula and its surroundings, Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with high-resolution visible-light images, adding extra detail in the centre of this image. The data reveal concentric shells, jets of high-speed gas and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost surreal in their intricacy.
These structures are believed to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nebula’s centre, creating a kind of cosmic 'fossil record' of its final evolutionary stages.
Combining the focused view of Hubble with Euclid’s deep field observations not only highlights the nebula’s exquisite structure but also places it within the broader context of the Universe that both space telescopes explore.
📹 European Space Agency (ESA)
#ESA #Space #Universe
This extraordinary planetary nebula in the constellation Draco has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure
Here, the nebula is showcased through the combined eyes of our NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and our Euclid telescope, highlighting the remarkable complexity of stellar death.
Though primarily designed to map the distant Universe, Euclid captures the Cat’s Eye Nebula as part of its deep imaging surveys. In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colourful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the centre formed.
Within this broad view of the nebula and its surroundings, Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with high-resolution visible-light images, adding extra detail in the centre of this image. The data reveal concentric shells, jets of high-speed gas and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost surreal in their intricacy.
These structures are believed to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nebula’s centre, creating a kind of cosmic 'fossil record' of its final evolutionary stages.
Combining the focused view of Hubble with Euclid’s deep field observations not only highlights the nebula’s exquisite structure but also places it within the broader context of the Universe that both space telescopes explore.
📹 European Space Agency (ESA)
#ESA #Space #Universe
