Two Observatories, One Cosmic Eye: Hubble and Euclid View Cat’s Eye Nebula

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features one of the most visually complex remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula is found in the constellation Draco and has captivated astronomers for decades with its complex, multi-layered structure. Observations from ESA’s Gaia mission place the nebula 4,400 light years away.

Planetary nebulae, so called because of their round shape, which made them resemble planets when observed through early telescopes, are actually expanding gases shed by stars in their final stages of evolution. It was in the Cat’s Eye Nebula that this fact was first discovered in 1864: examination of the spectrum of its light reveals the emission of individual molecules characteristic of a gas, distinguishing planetary nebulae from stars and galaxies.

Hubble also revolutionized our understanding of planetary nebulae; his detailed images showed that the simple, circular appearance of a planetary nebula seen from the ground conceals a very complex morphology. This was particularly true for the Cat’s Eye Nebula, where Hubble images in 1995 revealed previously unseen structures that expanded our understanding of how planetary nebulae form.

This time, Hubble is joined by ESA’s Euclid space telescope to create a new image of NGC 6543. The combined eyes of Hubble and Euclid reveal the remarkable complexity of this object’s stellar death. Although primarily designed to map the distant universe, Euclid captures the Cat’s Eye Nebula as part of its deep imaging studies. In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared and visible-light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are located in a halo of colorful fragments of gas moving away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star earlier, before the formation of the main nebula in the center. The entire nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen alongside Euclid.

In this wide view of the nebula and its surroundings, Hubble captures the very heart of the moving gas with a new high-resolution visible light image, adding additional detail to the center of this image. The data reveals a tapestry of concentric shells, high-velocity gas jets, and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that seem almost surreal in their complexity. These structures are thought to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nebula’s center, creating a sort of cosmic “fossil record” of its final stages of evolution.

Combining Hubble’s focused view with Euclid’s deep-field observations not only highlights the nebula’s exquisite structure, but also places it in the broader context of the universe explored by the two space telescopes. Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543, revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.

Media contact:

Claire Andreoli
from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov