Valeria Pettorino

NASA unveils dazzling new images of the ‘Cat’s Eye Nebula’ The space-based telescopes Hubble and Euclid combined forces to capture a dying star in stunning new detail

The space-based telescopes Hubble and Euclid combined forces to capture a dying star in stunning new detail

Une étoile au centre est entourée de bulles et de boucles de gaz blanches à plusieurs couches, d'une couleur bleu clair intense tirant sur le magenta. Les bulles et les coquilles de gaz circulaires sont entourées d'un halo brun, ponctué de nébulosités ​​rouges en haut à gauche et en bas à droite.

Sur cette image, le télescope spatial Euclid de l'ESA capture une vue panoramique de la nébuleuse de l'œil de chat. La région centrale brillante de la nébuleuse se situe au sein d'un halo de fragments de gaz colorés s'éloignant de l'étoile.

Vous connaissez peut-être la nébuleuse de l'Œil de Chat, cette étoile à l'agonie, assez similaire à l'état de notre Soleil dans ~5 milliards d'années.

Le télescope spatial Euclid @euclid-france.bsky.social a capturé le halo de fragments de matière plus anciens expulsés par l'étoile.

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Zoom into a cosmic eye 👁️

This video takes you on a journey through space to one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula 🐈‍⬛ also known as NGC 6543. 🔭 🧪

Euclid + Hubble = 💞

Une petite image de la nébuleuse planétaire de l’œil de chat, faite en combinant les données de Hubble et Euclid !

#astro #science #Hubble #Euclid

The precision of Hubble with the expansive vision of Euclid has got me stopping in my tracks this morning. Amazing!
www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

Two images of a planetary nebula in space. The image to the left, labelled “Euclid & Hubble”, shows the whole nebula and its surroundings. A star in the very centre is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. The background shows many stars and distant galaxies. A white box indicates the centre of the nebula and this region is the image to the right, labelled “Hubble”. It shows the multi-layered bubbles, pointed jets and circular shells of gas that make up the nebula, as well as the central star, in greater detail.

📸 This new NASA/ESA #Hubble Space Telescope image features the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543).

Hubble’s sharp vision meets Euclid’s wide view to uncover this spectacular portrait of a dying star.

esahubble.org/images/potm2...

@science.esa.int @stsci.edu

Two images of a planetary nebula in space. The image to the left, labelled “Euclid & Hubble”, shows the whole nebula and its surroundings. A star in the very centre is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broken ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. The background shows many stars and distant galaxies. A white box indicates the centre of the nebula and this region is the image to the right, labelled “Hubble”. It shows the multi-layered bubbles, pointed jets and circular shells of gas that make up the nebula, as well as the central star, in greater detail.

🤝 Hubble has teamed up with Euclid to image the intricate Cat’s Eye Nebula! 😻

Combining their focused views highlights the nebula’s exquisite structure, while placing it within the broader context.

Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭 🧪

An image of space made by the Euclid telescope shows a bright barred spiral galaxywith two sweeping arms glowing in shades of blue and white against a deep black background dotted with stars. Its core is luminous. Its spiral arms curve gracefully outward to the left and down to the right, resembling a cosmic garland draped across the scene. A smaller, faint and round galaxy appears to the left of the barred spiral galaxy.

🎄 Are your holiday decorations ready? Euclid has a cosmic garland to add: NGC 646.

The large barred spiral galaxy appears close to a smaller galaxy to the left, but they’re actually about 45 million light-years apart 👉 https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/12/Euclid_s_galaxy_garland
🔭

Nice to see Euclid featured in ESA highlights 2025, in excellent company. Well done to everyone!

The #CM25 historic increase of 3.5% per year beyond inflation for Science will enable some of the most imaginative missions in our history and bolster European scientific leadership.

First step: deliver the #CosmicVision missions such as LISA & NewAthena. The next great leap is #Voyage2050 🔭 🧪

Snapshot of a part of Euclid VIS detectors, almost saturated with cosmic ray hits.

Those were beautiful #aurorae in the past days. A solar storm brought a lot of protons to Earth. Not only to Earth but also to #ESAEuclid – but does #Euclid notice? Oh yes.

www.euclid-ec.org/here-comes-t...

#ESA #Sun #SpaceWeather #space

Euclid: dalle nubi oscure alla storia delle galassie La missione Euclid dell'Esa ha reso pubblica una nuova immagine di Ldn 1641, una nebulosa oscura situata nella nostra galassia, a circa 1300 anni luce da noi. Oltre all'immagine, che illustra l'abilit...

La missione @ec-euclid.bsky.social dell'@esa.int ha reso pubblica una nuova immagine di #Ldn1641, nebulosa oscura a circa 1300 anni luce da noi, e messo online sette nuovi articoli scientifici sulla formazione ed evoluzione delle galassie attraverso la storia del cosmo.

New #Euclid image drop from @esa.int and @ec-euclid.bsky.social! 😍

Meet LDN 1641, a ‘dark cloud’ about 1300 light-years from Earth, observed by Euclid back in 2023 to test its guiding systems. ⬛️☁️

Euclid peers through a dark cloud’s dusty veil

🔭🌌 Klarer Blick durch den galaktischen Nebel 👀: Das Weltraumteleskop #Euclid blickt durch eine Wolke aus Staub und Gas und zeigt unzählige junge Sterne ✨. Eines der 2 Instrumente des Teleskops (Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer) wurde übrigens in 🇩🇪 entwickelt. 🛠️

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

This new Euclid collage, based on the Q1 data set, presents 28 nearby galaxies observed by Euclid.
Each of the 28 galaxies can be explored directly in ESASky:
www.cosmos.esa.int/web/euclid/e...

ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi

The focus of the image is a portion of LDN 1641, an interstellar nebula in the constellation of Orion. In this view, a deep-black background is sprinkled with a multitude of dots (stars) of different sizes and shades of bright white. Across the sea of stars, a web of fuzzy tendrils and ribbons in varying shades of orange and brown rises from the bottom of the image towards the top-right like thin coils of smoke.

📷 This shimmering view from the ESA Euclid mission shows the dark cloud LDN 1641. Though nearly invisible to the human eye, Euclid’s infrared vision uncovers a rich landscape of gas, dust and dozens of newborn stars🧪🔭

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

@science.esa.int @ec-euclid.bsky.social

The focus of the image is a portion of LDN 1641, an interstellar nebula in the constellation of Orion. In this view, a deep-black background is sprinkled with a multitude of dots (stars) of different sizes and shades of bright white. Across the sea of stars, a web of fuzzy tendrils and ribbons in varying shades of orange and brown rises from the bottom of the image towards the top-right like thin coils of smoke.

#ESAEuclid peers through a dark cloud’s dusty veil to reveal a place teeming with very young stars ✨

While investigating the nature of the dark Universe, Euclid is also delivering observations such as this one that enable research in different fields of astronomy 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... 🔭

Registration to the Euclid Q1 workshop at ESAC will close on 9th November: www.cosmos.esa.int/web/working-...

A collage of nine by five squares containing galaxies of many different shapes and viewed in different orientations. For example, the first column shows five edge-on galaxies, which appear thin like a pencil. The galaxies in the second column have a more fuzzy, diffuse appearance. The middle columns showcase face-on spiral galaxies with many different shapes and densities of stars. The last two columns include interacting galaxies or galaxies with an unusual spiral arm or tidal tail.

In March, #ESAEuclid delivered its first batch of survey data, a treasure trove for research far beyond just the topic of dark matter & dark energy.

Thanks to its wide & deep view of the cosmos, Euclid will address questions from a broad range of topics 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 4/ 🔭 #CM25

Always impressive to watch this video

Part of our #CosmicVision plan, #ESAEuclid launched in 2023 on a quest to solve the mysteries of the dark Universe. 🔭

Its goal? Create a great map of the large-scale structure of the Universe across space and time by observing billions of galaxies. 1/ #CM25

A new workshop on Euclid Q1 data, open to the scientific community.
It will include science talks and tutorials on how to access Euclid data.
Registration and call for abstracts is open: www.cosmos.esa.int/web/working-...

A Parigi il prossimo mese? La sede ESA apre le sue porte al pubblico generale per il primo Open Day. Scoprite di piu qui: www.esa.int/Space_in_Mem...
Le registrazioni aprono il primo settembre. Segnate in agenda!

🗓️ Save the date! On 20 September, ESA HQ in Paris will hold its first Open Day for the general public. Registration opens 1 September. Stay tuned for more details! 👇 #ESAOpenDays
www.esa.int/Space_in_Mem...

In the photo three people in white overalls and caps stand in front of the instrumentation in a white hall. The equipment, about twice as tall as the people in the picture, consists of a black four-stepped-platform that supports 24 cameras. These resemble cylinders flaring at the top, not unlike big ice-cream cones. Each cylinder is wrapped in black material; the top flare has a metallic finish and a white lid.

To search for Earth-like planets our Plato mission will use 26 cameras in a design inspired by the compound eyes of insects.

The mission will spot any slight dimming or brightening of a star when a planet passes in front of it.

Learn more about Plato's 'eye' 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭

The latest @science.esa.int newsletter includes information on a new opportunity: a call to be part of the ESA advisory structure.

Graphic with space-y background, a title 'Research Fellows in space science 2025' and photos of the 10 new Research Fellows in Space Science 2025 with their names: Jo Ann Egger, Adam J. Finley, Zsofi Igo, Antonio La Marca, Benjamin Man, Cyril Mergny, Ioanna Psaradaki, Maria Edvige Ravasio, Giulia Roccetti and Ciarán Rogers.

Meet the 2025 Research Fellows in space science!

They were selected to pursue their own independent research in space science at one of our establishments.

Find out who they are and what kind of research they do here 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

Congratulations to all!
🧪☄️

😔😔😔

And that’s a wrap on #EuclidConsortiumMeeting2025!

Hundreds of #HumansOfEuclid are heading home after catching up in #Leiden 🇳🇱

🌌 Latest data was shown

🚀 Incredible new results shared

😃 Friends were made

Thanks to all the organisers and sponsors for such a wonderful week!

#Euclid #Space

Goodbye Gaia spacecraft and no worries: all your data are in excellent hands and the next Gaia data releases will keep the scientific community busy for many many years with new exciting discoveries.