Sunday, April 24, 2011

APOD 4.4

Picture from April 24, 2011

This celestial eye staring through space is none other than the Cat's Eye nebula. The nebula is a prime example of a planetary nebula, which actually has nothing to do with planets. Planetary nebulae are instead the result of dying stars expelling their outer layers. The star shrugs off the layers in a series of regular convulsions, producing the of concentric "shells" seen in the picture. After all the expelled material has been dispersed into space, all that will remain is the white dwarf star in the center. This is also the predicted fate of our own sun when its life comes to an end some 5 billion years from now.

No comments:

Post a Comment