In death, the Helix Nebula's central star throws its dusty outer layers into space that glow from the intense ultraviolet radiation being pumped out by its hot stellar core. Take a tour of the remarkable last era of a star's life from the view of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Helix Nebula (2002-11-19) by Hubble Space Telescope and Kitt Peak National ObservatoryNASA
The Helix Nebula
One of the closest planetary nebulas to Earth, this 17-trillion-mile-wide object is only 650 light-years away.
Planetary nebulas are the shells of gas expelled from dying Sun-like stars.
When a star with a mass similar to our Sun dies, it ejects its outer layers over the course of about 10,000 years.
The hot, exposed core of the star irradiates the gas, causing it to glow.
Hydrogen atoms, heated by the star at the center of the nebula, glow red.
Oxygen atoms, shown here in blue for easy visibility and contrast, glow in the heat of the nebula's central star.
A hot, fast stellar wind from the exposed core of the star blows into colder shells of gas and dust cast off earlier by the star.
Thousands of tendrils of gas, resembling comets, form as a result of the collisions and point toward the central star.
Hubble continues to reveal unprecedented details in the appearance of Sun-like stars that have entered the death throes of their lives.
Such images yield insights into the complex dynamics that accompany a star’s release of its outer gaseous layers before it collapses to form a white dwarf.
NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), and T.A. Rector (NRAO)
The composite picture is a seamless blend of ultra-sharp NASA Hubble Space Telescope images combined with the wide view of the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, near Tucson, Arizona.
NASA Hubble Space Telescope
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