Staring across interstellar space, the alluring Cat's Eye [ http://heritage.sts…] nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. A classic planetary nebula [ http://www.seds.org…], the Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) represents a final, brief yet glorious phase [ http://www.astro.wa…] in the life of a sun-like star. This nebula's dying central star may have produced the simple, outer pattern of dusty concentric shells [ http://arxiv.org/ab…] by shrugging [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. But the formation of the beautiful, more complex inner structures is not well understood [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Seen so clearly in this sharp Hubble [ http://hubblesite.o…releases/2004/27/fas tfacts/ ] Space Telescope image, the truly cosmic eye is over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into the Cat's Eye [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], astronomers may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase [ http://chandra.harv…white_dwarfs.html ] of evolution ... in about 5 billion years [ http://hubblesite.o…releases/1997/38/ast rofile/ ].
