Hubble and Euclid Reveal Stunning New View of Cat’s Eye Nebula

In a new collaboration, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ESA’s Euclid space telescope have produced a composite image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543). This planetary nebula, located in Draco about 4,300–4,400 light-years away, contains elaborate layered gas shells from a dying star. The joint observation highlights its complex structure and a colourful ring of material ejected in earlier phases, all set against a backdrop of distant galaxies

Combined Telescope Imaging

As per the official NASA blog, ESA’s Euclid and NASA’s Hubble telescopes combined their views to capture the Cat’s Eye Nebula in unprecedented detail. Although built to map the distant universe, Euclid’s deep surveys also pick up local targets like Cat’s Eye, bringing it into view. Its wide-field near-infrared and visible cameras reveal the broad context: arcs and filaments form a halo of colourful gas around the nebula’s core, plus an outer ring of material ejected earlier, all set against a backdrop of distant galaxies. Simultaneously, Hubble’s high-resolution camera peered at the nebula’s center, highlighting overlapping shells and jets close to the central star.

Nebula Structure Unveiled

In this new picture, Hubble’s high-resolution view of the central region of the nebula shows fine details such as intricate shells of gas, knots of gas, and fast-moving jets—a “fossil record” of the star’s last outbursts. Planetary nebulae were first identified as expanding clouds of gas using spectroscopy on Cat’s Eye in 1864. Euclid’s broader field of view shows a faint outer ring from an earlier outburst. Collectively, Hubble’s data from its ACS camera and Euclid’s image present a history of the star’s mass loss. By studying these multiple layers, scientists can reconstruct the star’s last centuries.