http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110424.html
The Cat's Eye Nebula from Hubble (May 2 2011)
For this APOD I went with probably my all time favorite Nebula, The Cat's Eye Nebula. The Cat's Eye Nebula lies about three thousand light years away from Earth. The phase of this nebula represents a final, brief but still impressive phase in the lifespan of a sun-like star. The nebula's withering central star may have produced the simple, outer pattern of dusty concentric figures by pushing away outer layers in a series of regular intervals. But the formation of the more complex inner structures is not well understood. In this high resolution image produced by the Hubble Telescope, the Cat's Eye is about a half a light year across. This is such a huge distance which I believe that I will never have the opportunity of comprehending but in the grand scheme of things, it is minuscule. Astronomers believe that our sun will be in a similar phase as this one s currently in in about 5 billion years!
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