Cat's Eye Nebula

planetary nebula · NGC 6543 · what the Sun will become

3,300 light-years from Earth

A dying Sun-like star puffed off a shell every ~1,500 years, leaving a bull's-eye of rings around twisted inner bubbles lit by its exposed hot core.

• central star ~80,000 K, losing mass in a 1,900 km/s wind
• teal: oxygen · red and orange: nitrogen and hydrogen

kind

nebula

catalogue

NGC 6543