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planetary nebula · planetary nebula in Aquarius

What is the Helix Nebula?

A planetary nebula: the gas shell shed by a dying Sun-like star — a preview of the Sun’s far future.

Worth knowing about the Helix Nebula

You see the Helix Nebula as it was 648 years ago.

Why it stands out
A preview of the Sun’s own far future: in about seven and a half billion years the Sun will shed its outer layers the same way.
What it is
Its glowing gas surrounds a white dwarf, the hot core the dying star left behind.
The Helix Nebula — A model, seen from the Earth, with north up.
The numbers
Across4.712 light-years
Distance from us648 light-years
How big it looksabout 25 arcminutes — the full Moon is about 30

We use 648 light-years: Gaia’s parallax of the central star, with Gaia’s zero-point correction (Bailer-Jones et al. 2021). The same parallax read without the correction gives 650.7.

How anyone knows this

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Games it appears in

Show the Helix Nebula in the model🧭 Where is the Helix Nebula?🕒 When can I see the Helix Nebula?📖 How the Milky Way fits together🌙 Plan an evening outside