Key facts
- Category
- Nebulae
- Object class
- Planetary nebula
- Host
- Milky Way
- Scale fact
- 3,800 billion km0.4 lymaximum extent
- Composition
- Ionized gas, dust, stellar ejecta
- Temperature
- ~8,000 K ionized gas
Cat's Eye Nebula
3,800 billion kmmaximum extent
Details
The Cat's Eye Nebula is a planetary nebula in Draco whose bright inner core folds shells, jets, and dense knots around a dying central star. Hubble resolves that compact center as a layered record of repeated mass loss, distinct from the much fainter halo beyond it.
The Cat's Eye Nebula contains nested shells, knots and jets around the exposed core of a dying star. The bright inner region spans about 0.4 light-years, while a much fainter halo extends farther and is not included in this record's displayed size.
The overlapping structures trace separate episodes of mass loss. Later, faster winds ran into older material, compressing and reshaping it rather than producing one uniformly expanding sphere.
Links
- Editorial guides
- Universe journey
- Orion Arm
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- Cat's Eye Nebula on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near Cat's Eye Nebula on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, Cat's Eye Nebula falls between NGC 7027 and Homunculus Nebula. The band uses nearby Planetary nebula records.
Shared physical scale
4.28ly
Sources
References for Cat's Eye Nebula
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Cat's Eye Nebula — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Hubble 2026 / ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Tsvetanov, CC BY 4.0)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.