galaxy at night

NGC 7293 – Helix Nebula A fairly well known target (Eye of God, Eye of Sauron), the Helix Nebula is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth, estimated to be around 655 light years away in the constellation of Aquarius. Planetary nebula is a misnomer, as they are the ionized gases released from an intermediate star as it expands at the end of its life and unrelated to planets. This is what will happen to our sun in about 5 billion years, but well before this stage in our sun’s evolution the Earth will have been incinerated. Our sun is too small to go supernova, instead it will expand as