August 26 2012
The Cat's Eye Nebula is labeled as a planetary nebula, but is in fact a binary star nebula. The term planetary nebula misleads the reader, because they think the center or subject of the nebula is a planet or a system of such. A binary star nebula however, is a nebula that has formed from stars throwing off their outer shells. This process creates a fantastic display of color and light, known as a nebula. A binary star system however is not a normal star, it's actually stars in orbit around a central object. So it's almost like a solar system with stars as planets! Pic found here!
This is a really cool APOD. I found it very informative. I did not realize the nebulae were formed by stars throwing off their outer shells. Keep up the good work!
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