2006 January 12

Infrared Helix
* Credit: J. Hora (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) et al., (SSC/Caltech), JPL-Caltech, NASA
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/
https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/docs/
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Explanation:
Over six hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula, typical of this final phase of stellar evolution. Emission in this infrared Spitzer Space Telescope image of the Helix comes mostly from the nebula's molecular hydrogen gas. The gas appears to be clumpy, forming thousands of comet-shaped knots each spanning about twice the size of our solar system. Bluer, more energetic radiation is seen to come from the heads with redder emission from the tails, suggesting that they are more shielded from the central star's winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. The nebula itself is about 2.5 light-years across. The Sun is expected to go through its own Planetary Nebula phase ... in another 5 billion years.

!> http://hawastsoc.org/deepsky/aqr/index.html

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060112.html

2009 December 31

Dust and the Helix Nebula
* NASA, JPL-Caltech, Kate Su (Steward Obs., U. Arizona), et al.
http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/
https://astro.arizona.edu/
https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0702296
http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Explanation:
Dust makes this cosmic eye look red. The eerie Spitzer Space Telescope image shows infrared radiation from the well-studied Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) a mere 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. The two light-year diameter shroud of dust and gas around a central white dwarf has long been considered an excellent example of a planetary nebula, representing the final stages in the evolution of a sun-like star. But the Spitzer data show the nebula's central star itself is immersed in a surprisingly bright infrared glow. Models suggest the glow is produced by a dust debris disk. Even though the nebular material was ejected from the star many thousands of years ago, the close-in dust could be generated by collisions in a reservoir of objects analogous to our own solar system's Kuiper Belt or cometary Oort cloud. Formed in the distant planetary system, the comet-like bodies would have otherwise survived even the dramatic late stages of the star's evolution.

https://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu//
http://maps.seds.org/Stars_en/Fig/aquarius.html
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap041210.html
http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jewitt/kb.html
!> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_evolution

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091231.html

2021 October 14

NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
* Image Credit & Copyright: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo
https://www.pampaskies.com/gallery3/index.php

Explanation:
A mere seven hundred light years from Earth, toward the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula, typical of this final phase of stellar evolution. A total of 90 hours of exposure time have gone in to creating this expansive view of the nebula. Combining narrow band image data from emission lines of hydrogen atoms in red and oxygen atoms in blue-green hues, it shows remarkable details of the Helix's brighter inner region about 3 light-years across. The white dot at the Helix's center is this Planetary Nebula's hot, central star. A simple looking nebula at first glance, the Helix is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry.
https://www.pampaskies.com/gallery3/Deep-Space-Objects/Helix_Oxygen_crop2_small
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/a-new-twist-on-an-old-nebula/

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211014.html

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[...]
The Helix Nebula is thought to be shaped like a prolate spheroid with strong density concentrations toward the filled disk along the equatorial plane, whose major axis is inclined about 21° to 37° from our vantage point. The size of the inner disk is 8×19 arcmin in diameter (0.52 pc); the outer torus is 12×22 arcmin in diameter (0.77 pc); and the outer-most ring is about 25 arcmin in diameter (1.76 pc). The outer-most ring appears flattened on one side due to it colliding with the ambient interstellar medium.

Expansion of the whole planetary nebula structure is estimated to have occurred in the last 6,560 years, and 12,100 years for the inner disk. Spectroscopically, the outer ring's expansion rate is 40 km/s, and about 32 km/s for the inner disk.
The Helix Nebula was the first planetary nebula discovered to contain cometary knots. Its main ring contains knots of nebulosity, which have now been detected in several nearby planetary nebulae, especially those with a molecular envelope like the Ring nebula and the Dumbbell Nebula.

These knots are radially symmetrical (from the CS) and are described as "cometary", each centered on a core of neutral molecular gas and containing bright local photoionization fronts or cusps towards the central star and tails away from it. All tails extend away from the Planetary Nebula Nucleus (PNN) in a radial direction. Excluding the tails, each knot is approximately the size of the Solar System, while each of the cusp knots are optically thick due to Lyc photons from the CS. There are about 40,000 cometary knots in the Helix Nebula.
[...] * more in the ALT-Text

CREDIT
+ Text excerpt
by Contributors to Wikimedia projects
+ Video credit
Magnetosheath (YT)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2wcz4CLDO7CrSKOUl9o8qg/about

2008 April 13

Curious Cometary Knots in the Helix Nebula
* Credit: C. R. O'Dell and K. Handron (Rice University), NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/

Explanation:
What causes unusual knots of gas and dust in planetary nebulas? Seen also in the Ring Nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula and NGC 2392, the knots' existence was not initially predicted and their origins are still not well understood. Pictured above is a fascinating image of the Helix Nebula by the Hubble Space Telescope showing tremendous detail of its mysterious gaseous knots. The above cometary knots have masses similar to the Earth but have radii typically several times the orbit of Pluto. One hypothesis for the fragmentation and evolution of the knots includes existing gas being driven out by a less dense but highly energetic stellar wind of the central evolving star. The Helix Nebula is the closest example of a planetary nebula created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The Helix Nebula, given a technical designation of NGC 7293, lies about 700 light-years away towards the constellation of Aquarius.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh%E2%80%93Taylor_instability
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_wind
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020MNRAS.491..758A/abstract

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080413.html

Helix Nebula Zoom

The Helix Nebula, NGC 7293, lies about 700 light-years away in the constellation of Aquarius (the Water Bearer). It is one of the closest and most spectacular examples of a planetary nebula. These exotic objects have nothing to do with planets, but are the final blooming of Sun-like stars before their retirement as white dwarfs. Shells of gas are blown off from a star’s surface, often in intricate and beautiful patterns, and shine under the harsh ultraviolet radiation from the faint, but very hot, central star. The main ring of the Helix Nebula is about two light-years across or half the distance between the Sun and its closest stellar neighbour.

[...] * see ALT-Text

Although the Helix looks very much like a doughnut, studies have shown that it possibly consists of at least two separate discs with outer rings and filaments. The brighter inner disc seems to be expanding at about 100 000 km/h and to have taken about 12 000 years to have formed.

Because the Helix is relatively close — it covers an area of the sky about a quarter of the full Moon — it can be studied in much greater detail than most other planetary nebulae and has been found to have an unexpected and complex structure. All around the inside of the ring are small blobs, known as “cometary knots”, with faint tails extending away from the central star. They look remarkably like droplets of liquid running down a sheet of glass. Although they look tiny, each knot is about as large as our Solar System. These knots have been extensively studied, both with the ESO Very Large Telescope and with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, but remain only partially understood.

https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso0907a/

CREDIT
ESO
(European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere)

2023 May 7

The Helix Nebula from CFHT
* Image Credit: CFHT, Coelum, MegaCam, J.-C. Cuillandre (CFHT) & G. A. Anselmi (Coelum)
https://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/
https://www.coelum.com/
https://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/Instruments/Imaging/Megacam/
https://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/~jcc/

Explanation:
Will our Sun look like this one day? The Helix Nebula is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The outer gasses 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 it causes the previously expelled gas to fluoresce. The Helix Nebula, given a technical designation of NGC 7293, lies about 700 light-years away towards the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius) and spans about 2.5 light-years. The featured picture was taken with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) located atop a dormant volcano in Hawaii, USA. A close-up of the inner edge of the Helix Nebula shows complex gas knots of unknown origin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius_(constellation)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230507.html

2025 July 29

A Helix Nebula Deep Field
* Image Credit & Copyright: George Chatzifrantzis
https://app.astrobin.com/u/pithagoras#gallery

Explanation:
Is the Helix Nebula looking at you? No, not in any biological sense, but it does look quite like an eye. The Helix Nebula is so named because it also appears that you are looking down the axis of a helix. In actuality, it is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry, including radial filaments and extended outer loops. The Helix Nebula (aka NGC 7293) is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The remnant central stellar core, destined to become a white dwarf star, glows in light so energetic it causes the previously expelled gas to fluoresce. The featured picture, taken in red, green, and blue but highlighted by light emitted primarily by hydrogen was created from 12 hours of exposure through a personal telescope located in Greece. A close-up of the inner edge of the Helix Nebula shows complex gas knots the origin of which are still being researched.
https://chandra.harvard.edu/deadstar/helix.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_Nebula
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula

https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Helix.html
http://www.astronomyknowhow.com/hydrogen-alpha.htm
https://youtu.be/WnWIt0iz00A

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250729.html