Helix Nebula
The
Helix Nebula
(
NGC 7293
) is one of the closest
planetary nebulae
to
Earth
. It lies 140
parsecs
or 450
light-years
from
Earth
in the
Aquarius
constellation
and has an
angular diameter
of about 0.5°. Helix was discovered by
Karl Ludwig Harding
before
1824
.
General information
The Helix Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula created at the end of the life of a
Sun-like star
. The outer gases of the star expelled into space appear from our
vantage point
as if we are looking down a
helix
. The remnant central stellar core, destined to become a
white dwarf
star, glows in light so energetic that it causes the previously expelled gas to
fluoresce
. Helix lies about 650 light-years away towards the constellation of
Aquarius
and spans about 2.5 light-years. Recent pictures of Helix are a composite of newly released images from the
ACS
instrument on the
Hubble Space Telescope
and wide-angle images from the Mosaic Camera on the
WIYN
0.9-m Telescope at
Kitt Peak National Observatory
.
Related topics
List of planetary nebulae
New General Catalogue
External links
NASA APOD - May 10, 2003 NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
SEDS: NGC 7293, the Helix Nebula
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