How to remove an element slowly with jQuery?

Question

$target.remove() can remove the element,but now I want the process to be down with some feel animation,how to do it?

Answer 1

All the answers are good, but I found they all lacked that professional "polish".

I came up with this, fading out, sliding up, then removing:

$target.fadeTo(1000, 0.01, function(){ 
    $(this).slideUp(150, function() {
        $(this).remove(); 
    }); 
});