Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Aquarius (Aqr)  ·  Contains:  Helix Nebula  ·  NGC 7293  ·  PK036-57.1
Helix Nebula NGC7293, Will Czaja
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Helix Nebula NGC7293

Helix Nebula NGC7293, Will Czaja
Powered byPixInsight

Helix Nebula NGC7293

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Description

The Helix Nebula, also known as "The Eye of God", is a planetary nebula 650 light years away in the constellation Aquarius. Planetary nebula form when average mass stars (like our Sun) reach the end of their stellar evolution and blow off their outer layers of gas. What's left is a small white dwarf star in the center that illuminates and fluoresces the gases surrounding it. Someday our Sun and (what's left of) our solar system may look similar to this.

I tried to render the same color palette as the Hubble example of the Helix (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30792). I'd love to re-image this with a longer focal length telescope to bring in more fine details of the core.

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