Hello! Astronomy Picture of the Day - August 23rd, 2020
Today's video is about The Helix Nebula from Blanco and Hubble
How did a star create the Helix nebula?
The shapes of planetary nebula like the Helix are important because they likely hold clues to how stars like the Sun end their lives
Observations by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and the 4-meter Blanco Telescope in Chile, however, have shown the Helix is not really a simple helix
Rather, it incorporates two nearly perpendicular disks as well as arcs, shocks, and even features not well understood
Even so, many strikingly geometric symmetries remain
How a single Sun-like star created such beautiful yet geometric complexity is a topic of research
The Helix Nebula is the nearest planetary nebula to Earth, lies only about 700 light years away toward the constellation of Aquarius, and spans about 3 light-years
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