{"id":329238,"date":"2026-03-04T23:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329238\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T23:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:28:08","slug":"hubble-and-euclid-team-up-for-sharpest-ever-photos-of-cats-eye-nebula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329238\/","title":{"rendered":"Hubble and Euclid Team Up for Sharpest Ever Photos of Cat’s Eye Nebula"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

The European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA) remarkable and relatively new Euclid space telescope<\/a> teamed up with NASA and ESA\u2019s venerable Hubble Space Telescope (Hubble) to capture beautiful photos<\/a> of the Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. <\/p>\n

The Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula, one of the most visually stunning remnants of a dying star in the observable Universe, is located about 4,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. Planetary nebulae like this are so named because of their round shape, which earlier astronomers thought resembled planets but are actually the expanding gas that stars shed in their final stages. <\/p>\n

\"A\u2018In this new image, NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the very core of the billowing gas with the High Resolution Channel sub-instrument on its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).\u2019 \"A\u2018In this image, ESA\u2019s Euclid space telescope captures a panoramic view of a dying star: the Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543.\u2019 <\/p>\n

The Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula was first discovered back in 1864 and has dazzled many astronomers, scientists, and astrophotographers. Euclid and Hubble\u2019s collaborative imaging efforts show the nebula in an all-new way. Euclid\u2019s exceptional resolution helps, of course, but scientists also used cutting-edge image processing techniques to combine Hubble\u2019s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) images and data, some from more than 20 years ago, with Euclid\u2019s wide, near-infrared, and visible-light views of the Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula. The resulting close-up and cosmic environmental photos are not just gorgeous; they are the sharpest-ever photos of this beautiful nebula. <\/p>\n

\u201cCombining the focused view of Hubble with Euclid\u2019s deep field observations not only highlights the nebula\u2019s exquisite structure but also places it within the broader context of the universe that both space telescopes explore,\u201d NASA and the ESA explain. \u201cTogether, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 \u2014 revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.\u201d <\/p>\n

Although Hubble is getting up there in years, it continues to contribute to important scientific work. Euclid, on the other hand, is nearly brand-new. Just over a year ago, the 600-megapixel telescope broke new ground by photographing an \u201cEinstein Ring\u201d encircling a nearby galaxy<\/a>. The space telescope is using its 36 CCD image sensors, each 4,000 x 4,000 pixels, to scour the Universe for dark matter and dark energy and help scientists build a 3D map of the distribution of galaxies and dark matter. <\/p>\n

Euclid observed more of the Universe in a single day than Hubble has done in 25 years, but as the new photos of the Cat\u2019s Eye Nebula show, space science \u2014 and astrophotography \u2014 is at its best when multiple space telescopes team up. <\/p>\n

Image credits: ESA\/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid\/Euclid Consortium\/NASA\/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA) remarkable and relatively new Euclid space telescope teamed up with NASA and ESA\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[22307,10805,152062,152063,5621,152064,61,60,91,13923,82,247],"class_list":{"0":"post-329238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-astro","9":"tag-esa","10":"tag-euclid","11":"tag-euclidspacetelescope","12":"tag-hubble","13":"tag-hubblespacetelescope","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-nasa","17":"tag-nebula","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}