The Helix nebula is a shimmering cloud of gas with an eerie resemblance to a giant eye. The dusty dead star appears as a dot in the middle of the nebula, like a red pupil in a green monster’s eye.
Click here to have a look at it.
It is located about 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius.
Radiation from the dead star’s hot core heats the expelled material, causing it to fluoresce with vivid colours.
Cosmic smash-up

A few million years ago, when the star was still lively like our sun, its comets – and possibly planets – would have been in stable orbits, travelling harmoniously around the star.

But when the star died, any inner planets would have been burned up or engulfed as the star expanded.

Outer planets, asteroids and comets would have been thrown into each other’s paths.

Our own Solar System is expected to undergo a similar transformation in about five billion years.

Like the Helix nebula, it will sparkle with colours. Our Sun, which will have become a white dwarf, will be circled by a band of surviving outer planets and colliding comets. The Spitzer data might also help explain a mystery surrounding the Helix nebula’s white dwarf. Previous observations indicated that the white dwarf was throwing out highly energetic X-rays. While the white dwarf is hot – about 110,000 Kelvin (109,727C; 200,000F), it is not hot enough to explain the energetic X-rays.

Astronomers thought that the white dwarf was accreting matter onto itself from a hidden companion star.

Courtesy: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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