More recently, some planetary nebulae are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution.
While the href="http://www.astro.washington.edu/balick/WFPC2/">planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years.
Visible on the right, some 50 million light-years beyond the Cat's Eye, lies spiral galaxy NGC 6552.
