【????? ?????? ???】Have you stared deeply into the Cat’s Eye Nebula?

NASA describes the dying star,????? ?????? ??? NGC 6543, in elegant scientific prose.

"The Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) represents a brief, yet glorious, phase in the life of a sun-like star."

The space agency recently posted a sharpened image of the distant planetary nebula, located some 3,000 light-years beyond Earth. These sprawling clouds of dust and gas form when stars similar to our sun reach the end of their lives and "gently eject their outer gaseous layers," according to NASA and ESA astronomers. The legendary Hubble Space Telescope, now nearly 30 years old, originally captured this image of the planetary nebula.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Though the creation of the Cat's Eye Nebula might be a relatively tranquil event, when larger, giant stars die, they release great clouds of matter into space in violent explosions, which also result in brilliant cosmic displays like the Eagle Nebula or Crab Nebula. These star remnants then become the birthplace of entirely new stars and planetary systems -- and so the galactic life cycle goes.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

In NGC 6543, NASA suspects that the hypnotic outer concentric rings may have been formed by the star progressively shedding layers. Though the evolution of the complex, bubble-like inner-structures remains uncertain.

SEE ALSO: The space race forged immortal rock and roll guitars

If you do choose to peer deeply into the Cat's Eye Nebula, you might see a foreshadowing of the sun's own future. It, too, will one day grow into a bloated star, gently shed its mass, and die.

"Of course, gazing into the Cat's Eye, astronomers may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution ... in about 5 billion years," writes NASA.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Meet Katie Bouman, one of the scientists who helped capture the first black hole image

---

• fashion
• hotspot
• focus
• recreation
• relaxation
• synthesize
• knowledge
• explore

• ‘Heart Song’ Extended to Aug. 25
• 13 Good Games You Can Play on Laptops and Budget PCs
• SpaceX, Blue Origin awarded NASA contracts for upcoming Moon mission
• 'The Last of Us' Season 2: Who are the Seraphites or 'Scars'?
• karrigan: "The main issue we have is we don't have a pick that's 100% safe for us"
• How to: Taking Pictures of PCBs
• Sir David Attenborough delivers stark warning in BBC doc 'Extinction: The Facts'
• Scientists discover new species of South American matamata turtle
• Saori Yuki at Hollywood Bowl with Pink Martini
• SpaceX is building an offshore rocket launch facility

• Fidel Castro died and people won't stop talking about Liam Neeson
• This ramen joint is an introverted foodie's paradise
• 10 things Trump denounces more than hate crimes and white supremacists
• Fitbit's Charge 2 takes fitness tracking to the next level
• People are mad at this prank video making fun of Thai people's English
• Tommy Hilfiger says designers should 'be proud' to dress Melania Trump
• Protests in South Korea just keep getting bigger
• What to buy for the person in your life whose only interest is Kylie Jenner's lips
• A sexy Kenny G meme war is what the internet does best
• 8 quotes from Trump's New York Times interview that are Trump AF

• Illustrator Yoshimura to Attend Signings
• SpaceX is building an offshore rocket launch facility
• Microsoft overhauls the Windows 11 Start menu
• Why You Can't Buy Books from the Kindle app on iPhone or iPad in 2018
• MOUZ secure EPL playoff berth over FURIA
• How fast is SpaceX's satellite internet? Beta tests show it hitting up to 60Mbps.
• Sudoku book is so hard, even the cover gets it wrong
• The deceiving thing about the big, historic drop in CO2 emissions
• IEM Rio Major initial seeding and Challengers Stage opening matchups set
• 'The Last of Us' Season 2: What is the Washington Liberation Front?

• EU RMR A Day 3: As it happened
• Google's AI Mode is reportedly hitting the homepage
• Chrome Tab Management Tips and Extensions
• NYT mini crossword answers for May 12, 2025
• s1mple comes alive on decider as NAVI send Astralis to last chance stage in Malta
• The Best Video Game Handguns
• Best Apple M4 MacBook Air deal: Save $150 on new MacBook Air
• The World Wide Web Turns 30: A Timeline
• Love Is the Punch Line
• Microscopic photos show the hidden beauty of an invisible world