Planetary Nebula NGC 6543  The Cat's Eye Nebula  Hubble Space Telescope Image

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows one of the most complex planetary nebulae ever seen, NGC 6543, nicknamed the "Cat's Eye Nebula." Hubble reveals surprisingly intricate structures including concentric gas shells, jets of high-speed gas and unusual shock-induced knots of gas. Estimated to be 1,000 years old, the nebula is a visual "fossil record" of the dynamics and late evolution of a dying star.
A preliminary interpretation suggests that the star might be a double-star system. The dynamical effects of two stars orbiting one another most easily explains the intricate structures, which are much more complicated than features seen in most planetary nebulae. (The two stars are too close together to be individually resolved by Hubble, and instead, appear as a single point of light at the center of the nebula.)
According to this model, a fast "stellar wind" of gas blown off the central star created the elongated shell of dense, glowing gas. This structure is embedded inside two larger lobes of gas blown off the star at an earlier phase. These lobes are "pinched" by a ring of denser gas, presumably ejected along the orbital plane of the binary companion.
The suspected companion star also might be responsible for a pair of high- speed jets of gas that lie at right angles to this equatorial ring. If the companion were pulling in material from a neighboring star, jets escaping along the companion's rotation axis could be produced.
These jets would explain several puzzling features along the periphery of the gas lobes. Like a stream of water hitting a sand pile, the jets compress gas ahead of them, creating the "curlicue" features and bright arcs near the outer edge of the lobes. The twin jets are now pointing in different directions than these features. This suggests the jets are wobbling, or precessing, and turning on and off episodically.
 

This color picture, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2, is a composite of three images taken at different wavelengths. (red, hydrogen-alpha; blue, neutral oxygen, 6300 angstroms; green, ionized nitrogen, 6584 angstroms). The image was taken on September 18, 1994. NGC 6543 is 3,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Draco.

You can find additional information and links about the Cat's Eye Nebula on NASA's Astronomy Picture Of the Day Web Site!

 

• Distance: Estimated to be 3,000 light years from our solar system.
• Radial Velocity: 66 km/sec, moving away from our solar system.
• Expansion Velocity: Approximately 19 km/sec.
• Discovered by William Herschel in 1786
• Uranometria 2000.0 Chart No. 30
• IC 4677 is listed in NGC2000.0 as a galaxy. It is a detached 'knot' of NGC 6543.
• First planetary nebula spectra taken on August 29, 1864 by Sir William Huggins
   

DIGITAL SKY SURVEY IMAGE  (8.5' Field)	KITT PEAK 4 METER TELESCOPE IMAGE  NOTE: IC 4677 IS THE BRIGHT HALO KNOT(S) TO THE RIGHT (WEST) OF THE PLANETARY

  OBSERVATION NOTES

Steve Gottlieb:
N6543 = PK 96+29 1 = Cat's Eye Nebula  = IC 4677 (Detached knot)
17 58.6 +66 38
17.5": viewed at 280x and 412x; appears very bright, fairly small, oval SW-NE, blue-green color.  Appears darker (annular) surrounding the mag 11 central star.  There is a very faint oval outer envelope.
13": at 400x appears very bright, oval N-S, blue color, central star visible with averted vision.
8": bright, elongated, blue, high surface brightness.

IC 4677
17 58.3 +66 38
17.5": this unusual object is a irregular knot in the outer halo of N6543 1.7' W of center and appearing visually completely detached from the bright planetary.  Suspected at 220x without filtration close to a mag 15 star located 1' W of the planetary.   Using a UHC filter, IC 4677 is clearly visible with averted vision as a very faint elongated patch, ~25" x 15" oriented SW-NE.  Requires averted for a good view but can almost hold continuously.  Also visible at 140x with OIII filter and 280x with the UHC, but 220x provided the best view.


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  DEEP SKY SKETCH BY BERT DEKKER OF NGC 6543  

OBSERVER: Bert Dekker  LOCATION: The Netherlands  OBJECT: Planetary Nebula NGC 6543, Cat's Eye Nebula  TELESCOPE: 6" f/6 Newtonian  MAGIFICATION:  x240  NOTE: Greenish colors observed

Bert Dekker's Visual Deep Sky Web Site

     

NGC 6543 (U. of Arizona)	NGC 6543 RGB Image

     

 

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02/21/ 98