NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula

Will our Sun [ http://www.nineplan…] look like this one day? The Helix Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] is the closest example of a planetary nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The outer gasses of the star expelled into space [ http://www.seds.org…] appear from our vantage point as if we are looking down a helix [ http://mathworld.wo…]. The remnant central stellar core, destined to become a white dwarf star [ http://imagine.gsfc…], glows in light so energetic [ http://imagers.gsfc…] it causes the previously expelled gas to fluoresce [ http://www.explorat…]. The Helix Nebula [ http://www.seds.org…], given a technical designation of NGC 7293 [ http://www.astro.ui…], lies about 650 light-years [ http://chandra.harv…] away towards the constellation [ http://www.emufarm.…] of Aquarius [ http://www.astronom…] and spans about 2.5 light-years. The above picture [ http://hubblesite.o…] is a composite [ http://archive.stsc…] of newly released images from the ACS [ http://acs.pha.jhu.…] instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and wide-angle images from the Mosaic Camera on the WIYN [ http://www.noao.edu…] 0.9-m Telescope [ http://www.noao.edu…] at Kitt Peak National Observatory [ http://www.noao.edu…]. A close-up [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of the inner edge of the Helix Nebula [ http://hubblesite.o…] shows complex gas knots of unknown origin [ http://adsabs.harva…].

NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/], WIYN [ http://www.noao.edu…], NOAO [ http://www.noao.edu/], ESA [ http://www.esa.int/], Hubble Helix Nebula Team [ http://www-int.stsc…], M. Meixner [ http://www.astro.ui…] (STScI [ http://www.stsci.ed…]), & T. A. Rector [ http://www.noao.edu…] (NRAO [ http://www.nrao.edu/])

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Washington, D.C.

Sun

Aquarius

nebula

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

New General Catalogue (NGC)

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap030510