Colorful Demise

Hubble Space Telescope snapped this colorful image of NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula. The nebula represents the last gasp of a dying star. The star has stopped producing nuclear fusion reactions in its core, and is blowing its outer layers into space. These expanding layers include dense knots of gas and dust, concentric gas shells, high-speed jets, and other structures. The nebula began forming roughly 1,000 years ago as seen from Earth. [NASA/ESA/J.P. Harrington and K.J. Borkowski (Univ. Maryland)]