The beautiful Cat's Eye nebula shows what scientists believe is a binary star system in the end stages of stellar evolution. The Cat's Eye is a very complex nebula and its process is not yet well understood by scientists. What you see in this picture, by the Hubble Space Telescope, is layers of atmospheric gasses being shed, or "puffed away," by rhythmic eruptions. The nebula is 3,000 light years away, and is a relative newcomer, about 1,000 years old in its present state. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel in 1786.
A nebula is a gas cloud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula
Photo credit: NASA/AURA/STSCI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Eye_Nebula
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