Hubble & Euclid zoom into cosmic eye

This extraordinary planetary nebula in the constellation Draco has fascinated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and layered structure. The nebula is located at a distance of approximately 4300 light-years as observed by ESA’s Gaia mission.

Planetary nebulae, so-called due to their round shape when seen with early telescopes, are actually expanding gas thrown out by stars in the late stages of evolution. It was in the Cat’s Eye Nebula where this fact was first discovered in 1864 – examining the spectrum of its light revealed emissions from individual molecules that are characteristic of a gas, distinguishing planetary nebulae from stars and galaxies.

Here, the nebula is displayed through the combined eyes of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESA’s Euclid, highlighting the remarkable complexity of stellar death.

Although primarily designed to map the distant universe, Euclid captures the Cat’s Eye Nebula as part of its intensive imaging surveys. In Euclid’s detailed, near-infrared and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region lie within a halo of colorful chunks of gas zooming away from the star.

This ring was ejected from the star in an earlier stage, before the main nebula formed at the center. The entire nebula stands out against a background filled with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the universe can be seen simultaneously in modern astronomical surveys.

Within this wide view of the nebula and its surroundings, Hubble captures the core of the emerging gas with high-resolution visible-light images, and adds additional detail in the center of this image. The data reveal a tapestry of concentric spheres, jets of high-speed gas, and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost unreal in their complexity. These structures are thought to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the center of the nebula, creating a kind of cosmic ‘fossil record’ of its final evolutionary stages.

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 that both space telescopes explore. Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 – revealing the delicate interconnections between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast surrounding space.

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The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international collaboration between ESA and NASA.