Zoom in the sky

Zooming in the sky with a telescope you can see the planetary nebulas around us. This is the nearest one, the Helix Nebula.

These exotic objects have nothing to do with planets, but are the final blooming of Sun-like stars before their retirement as white dwarfs. Shells of gas are blown off from a stars surface, often in intricate and beautiful patterns, and shine under the harsh ultraviolet radiation from the faint, but very hot, central star. The main ring of the Helix Nebula is about two light-years across or half the distance between the Sun and its closest stellar neighbour.

VISTA telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Credit: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson/S. Brunier/A. Fujjii/Digitized Sky Survey 2
Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
Music: John Dyson (from the album Moonwind)

The Helix Nebula or NGC 7293 in the constellation Aquarius.
Credits: NASA.