APOD 1.6

The water bearer, Aquarius, houses a dying star seven hundred light-years away. NGC 7293, or the Helix Nebula, is the result of thousands of years on its deathbed, producing a well-studied paragon of a planetary nebula, as many stars will do towards the end of their scintillating days. The photo above is a result of 58 hours of exposure, ensuring the display of the hydrogen red ring and the inner area of oxygen aqua. In the rings, in a photograph taken by the Hubble, gaseous knots form in the detail of the cloud, between the inner region and outer halo. The darker, more prominent inner region spans about 3 light-years, while the faint halo expands its length to over 6 light-years across. The white dot at the centre is the hot and dying star. While this nebula looks simple, it has a complicated geometric structure.