I chose this picture, the Cat's Eye Nebula, in light of the test we just took and what we've been talking about for the past few weeks. I think we actually looked at a picture of it briefly in class. This is a planetary nebula, one of our favorite stages of a dying sun-like star. The Cat's Eye is three thousand light years from Earth and spans over half a light year. Astronomers believe that the distinct layers of the Cat's Eye were created by the shrugging off of several layers, rather than the singular envelope we're sort of used to (when we envision planetary nebulae, we usually think of rings and all). So that's all well and good, but we really don't know what creates the distinct pattern closer to the star that's actually dying, in the middle of the picture. This is a "remix" of traditional Hubble pictures to give a better sense of the light and dark regions of the nebula. Astronomers believe that this will be the ultimate stage of our sun, though hopefully our sun's planetary nebula will be even prettier cause well we're the best :)
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