Assembled from SHO data in Hubble Palette.

NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula, is located in the Constellation Draco at a distance of 3300 light years. The intricacy of the structure may be caused in part by material ejected from a binary central star, but as yet, there is no direct evidence that the central star has a companion. Also, measurements of chemical abundances reveal a large discrepancy between measurements done by two different methods, the cause of which is uncertain. Hubble Telescope observations revealed a number of faint rings around the Eye, which are spherical shells ejected by the central star in the distant past. The exact mechanism of those ejections, however, is unclear.

Assembled October 24, 2010