In this detailed view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the so-called Cat's Eye Nebula looks like the penetrating eye of the disembodied sorcerer Sauron from the film adaptation of "Lord of the Rings." The nebula, formally catalogued NGC 6543, is every bit as inscrutable as the J.R.R. Tolkien phantom character. Although the Cat's Eye Nebula was among the first planetary nebula ever to be discovered, it is one of the most complex planetary nebulae ever seen in space. A planetary nebula forms when Sun-like stars gently eject their outer gaseous layers to form bright nebulae with amazing twisted shapes.

In a cold and dark universe, a star burns bright,
A fiery orb of warmth and light in the night,
A beacon of hope in an endless void of blackness
, A shining example of resilience and might.
But as all things must, the star begins to fade,
Its once fierce flames now dwindling and dim,
The light it gave now a distant memory,
As it succumbs to the inexorable grim.
And yet, in its dying moments, the star glows on,
A final burst of radiance in the cold,
A last, defiant act in a universe that’s grown old,
A testament to the beauty that once it behold.
For though the star may fade and die in the end,
Its memory will live on and never bend.

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