NASA posts intriguing image of 'cat's eye' in the sky

So NASA sends rockets in space and clicks nice pictures. Yes, we know. But the space agency has a robust social media presence and even if a post is sort of a repeat, the way it is presented sparks a renewed interest about that particular celestial body. On Thursday (Feb 22), NASA threw a riddle at its followers on Instagram.

"We’ve got another Hubble puzzle for you to solve. What do you think this image is? Comment your guess before time runs out!...," says NASA in its post. The actual post is not a usual image but one that is revealed gradually in tiles that resemble pieces of a puzzle.

The black spots give way to a splendid, yet intriguing picture that resembles a cat's eye. And indeed this nebula is called Cat's Eye Nebula.

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The Cat's Eye Nebula is also designated as 'NGC 6543'. It is a planetary nebula that's in the northern constellation called Draco. This particular image was taken by Hubble Space Telescope, the predecessor of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

It is often tricky to find distance between Earth and such nebulae as the latter are just mass of gas and dust. But after years of careful observation through the lenses of Hubble, scientists have concluded that the Cat's Eye Nebula is 3,300 lightyears away from us.

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The Cat's Eye Nebula was formed when a star caused mass ejections in intervals of 1,500 years. This led to formation of 'dust shells'. Such a process forms an onion skin-like structure as it is visible in case of the Cat's Eye Nebula.

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Scientists are still intrigued by the unique structure of the Cat's Eye Nebula. It has been postulated before that the mass ejections from the dying star may have been the result of a process in that star similar to 'magnetic flip' in the Sun.

(With inputs from agencies)