This image of the Cat's Eye Nebula (located in the constellation of Draco and originally discovered by William Herschel) taken by the Hubble Telescope illustrates an average planetary nebula, meaning it was a main sequence star similar to our Sun that burned away all the hydrogen to helium in its core causing the star to rapidly expand. The star then loses its outer layers, which results in a hot stellar core with a significant amount of its mass that was likely about 1000 years ago. About 95% of our Milky Way galaxy stars eventually become planetary nebulae and the Cat Eye Nebula is insignificant when compared to the numerous other ones of its type, except that its elaborate inner structure that creates such a striking visual is very unique and little is know about how this pattern formed. Astronomers suspect that at its center might be a binary star system
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