Some 4,300 light-years away, a dying star left behind one of the most intricate structures in the known Universe — the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543). It was here, in 1864, that planetary nebulae were first proven to be expanding clouds of gas shed by stars in their final stages, not stars or galaxies themselves.
The new image combines the strengths of two telescopes. Hubble peers into the nebula's core, revealing concentric shells, high-speed gas jets, and dense knots shaped by shock waves — a kind of cosmic fossil record of the star's final mass-loss episodes. Euclid pulls back to show the full picture: an outer halo of gas arcs ejected even earlier, surrounding the central structure, with thousands of distant galaxies visible in the background.
Together, the two telescopes capture something rare — the intimate details of a stellar death scene set against the farthest reaches of the Universe, all in a single view.