貓眼星雲 (The Cat's Eye Nebula)

影像提供: J. P. Harrington (U. Maryland) & K. J. Borkowski (NCU) HST, NASA
Explanation:
    Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula to be one of the most complex planetary nebulae known. In fact, the features seen in the Cat's Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright central object may actually be a binary star system. The term planetary nebula, used to describe this general class of objects, is misleading. Although these objects may appear round and planet-like in small telescopes, high resolution images reveal them to be stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown off in the late stages of stellar evolution.
說明:
      一顆離我們三千光年遠的垂死恆星，拋擲出這團光亮的氣殼。這張來自哈伯太空望遠鏡的影像，透露出貓眼星雲是現知結構最複雜的行星狀星雲之一。事實上，貓眼星雲內的亮紋是如此繁複，讓天文學家懷疑星雲中心的明亮天體其實是個雙星系統。用行星狀星雲來稱呼這類天體其實是種誤導，因為雖然它們在小口徑望遠鏡中的外觀像行星有些渾圓，高解析影像卻清楚呈現出，它們是外面包著恆星演化末期所拋出的雲氣繭之恆星。
資料來源: Scientific American
                 Department of Physics, NCKU

感覺有些詭異  毛毛的 !

美美又恐怖
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挺美的，谢谢楼主分享