This composite of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope gives astronomers a new look for NGC 6543, better known as the Cat's Eye nebula. This planetary nebula represents a phase of stellar evolution that our sun may well experience several billion years from now. www.astroview.com.cn& }# t( Z. s5 ~7 m" }
When a star like the sun begins to run out of fuel, it becomes a red giant. In this phase, a star sheds some of its outer layers, eventually leaving behind a hot core that collapses to form a dense white dwarf star. A fast wind emanating from the hot core rams into the ejected atmosphere, pushes it outward, and creates the graceful filamentary structures seen with optical telescopes.
6 }0 U. v+ O" v& a) ~3 L天文望远镜器材评测和交流论坛In the case of the Cat's Eye, material shed by the star is flying away at a speed of about 4 million miles per hour. The star itself is expected to collapse to become a white dwarf star in a few million years.
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2 d; Y& U$ }( I! Q- ~# Z: ?天文家园欢迎您！Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI

简介:在这张利用钱德拉X射线天文台与哈勃太空望远镜合成的NGC 6543猫眼星云的相片中，星云的中央星被一层上百万度的气体所包围，这些高温气体是由中央星所脱离，这颗中央星在数百万年后会变为一颗白矮星。