The Helix Nebula (also known as NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63) is a
planetary nebula
A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives.
The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated to ...
(PN) located in the
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The origins of the e ...
Aquarius
Aquarius may refer to:
Astrology
* Aquarius (astrology), an astrological sign
* Age of Aquarius, a time period in the cycle of astrological ages
Astronomy
* Aquarius (constellation)
* Aquarius in Chinese astronomy
Arts and entertainme ...
. Discovered by
Karl Ludwig Harding
Karl Ludwig Harding (29 September 1765 – 31 August 1834) was a German astronomer, who discovered 3 Juno, the third asteroid of the main-belt in 1804. The lunar crater '' Harding'' and the asteroid 2003 Harding are named in his honor. ...
, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest of all the bright
planetary nebula
A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives.
The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated to ...
e to
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
The distance, measured by the ''
Gaia
In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...
'' mission, is 655±13 light-years. It is similar in appearance to the
Cat's Eye Nebula
The Cat's Eye Nebula (also known as NGC 6543 and Caldwell 6) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Draco, discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786. It was the first planetary nebula whose spectrum was investigated by t ...
and the
Ring Nebula, whose size, age, and physical characteristics are similar to the
Dumbbell Nebula
The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as the Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, and NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula (nebulosity surrounding a white dwarf) in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1360 light-years. It was the first such nebula ...
, varying only in its relative proximity and the appearance from the equatorial viewing angle.
The Helix Nebula has sometimes been referred to as the "Eye of God" in
pop culture
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* Pop (Gas al ...
, as well as the "
Eye of Sauron
Sauron (pronounced ) is the title character and the primary antagonist, through the forging of the One Ring, of J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'', where he rules the land of Mordor and has the ambition of ruling the whole of Middl ...
".
General information
The Helix Nebula is an example of a
planetary nebula
A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives.
The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated to ...
, formed by an intermediate to low-mass star, which sheds its outer layers near the end of its evolution. Gases from the star in the surrounding space appear, from our
vantage point, as if we are looking down a
helix
A helix () is a shape like a corkscrew or spiral staircase. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is formed as two intertwined helices, ...
structure. The remnant central stellar core, known as the central star (CS) of the planetary nebula, is destined to become a
white dwarf
A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...
star. The observed glow of the central star is so energetic that it causes the previously expelled gases to brightly
fluoresce
Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...
.
The nebula is in the constellation of
Aquarius
Aquarius may refer to:
Astrology
* Aquarius (astrology), an astrological sign
* Age of Aquarius, a time period in the cycle of astrological ages
Astronomy
* Aquarius (constellation)
* Aquarius in Chinese astronomy
Arts and entertainme ...
, and lies about 650
light-year
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
s away, spanning about 0.8
parsec
The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (au), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, and ...
s (2.5 light-years). Its age is estimated to be years, based on the ratio of its size to its measured expansion rate of 31 km·s
−1.
Structure
![Comets Kick up Dust in Helix Nebula (PIA09178)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Comets_Kick_up_Dust_in_Helix_Nebula_%28PIA09178%29.jpg)
The Helix Nebula is thought to be shaped like a
prolate spheroid
A spheroid, also known as an ellipsoid of revolution or rotational ellipsoid, is a quadric surface obtained by rotating an ellipse about one of its principal axes; in other words, an ellipsoid with two equal semi-diameters. A spheroid has circu ...
with strong density concentrations toward the filled disk along the
equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
ial plane, whose
major axis
In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the lo ...
is inclined about 21° to 37° from our vantage point. The size of the inner disk is 8×19 arcmin in diameter (0.52 pc); the outer torus is 12×22 arcmin in diameter (0.77 pc); and the outer-most ring is about 25 arcmin in diameter (1.76 pc). The outer-most ring appears flattened on one side due to it colliding with the ambient
interstellar medium
In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter and radiation that exist in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as dust and cosmic rays. It fills interstella ...
.
Expansion of the whole planetary nebula structure is estimated to have occurred in the last 6,560 years, and 12,100 years for the inner disk. Spectroscopically, the outer ring's expansion rate is 40 km/s, and about 32 km/s for the inner disk.
Knots
![NGC7293Location](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/NGC7293Location.png)
The Helix Nebula was the first planetary nebula discovered to contain
cometary knot
Cometary knots, also referred as globules, are structures observed in several nearby planetary nebulae (PNe), including the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), the Ring Nebula (NGC 6720), the Dumbbell Nebula (NGC 6853), the Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392), and th ...
s. Its main ring contains knots of nebulosity, which have now been detected in several nearby planetary nebulae, especially those with a molecular envelope like the
Ring nebula and the
Dumbbell Nebula
The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as the Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, and NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula (nebulosity surrounding a white dwarf) in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1360 light-years. It was the first such nebula ...
. These knots are radially symmetric (from the CS) and are described as "cometary", each centered on a core of neutral molecular gas and containing bright local
photoionization
Photoionization is the physical process in which an ion is formed from the interaction of a photon with an atom or molecule.
Cross section
Not every interaction between a photon and an atom, or molecule, will result in photoionization. The prob ...
fronts or cusps towards the central star and tails away from it.
All tails extend away from the Planetary Nebula Nucleus (PNN) in a radial direction. Excluding the tails, each knot is approximately the size of our Solar system, while each of the cusp knots are optically thick due to
Lyc photon
Lyman continuum photons (abbrev. LyC), shortened to Ly continuum photons or Lyc photons, are the photons emitted from stars at photon energies above the Lyman limit. Hydrogen is ionized by absorbing LyC. Working from Victor Schumann's discovery ...
s from the CS.
There are about 40,000 cometary knots in the Helix Nebula.
The knots are probably the result of
Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The low density, high expansion velocity ionized inner nebula is accelerating the denser, slowly expanding, largely neutral material which had been shed earlier when the star was on the
Asymptotic Giant Branch
The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) is a region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram populated by evolved cool luminous stars. This is a period of stellar evolution undertaken by all low- to intermediate-mass stars (about 0.5 to 8 solar masses) lat ...
.
The
excitation temperature
The excitation temperature (T_) is defined for a population of particles via the Boltzmann factor. It satisfies
:
\frac = \frac \exp,
where ''n''u and ''n''l represent the number of particles in an upper (''e.g.'' excited) and lower (''e.g.'' ...
varies across the Helix nebula.
The rotational-vibrational temperature ranges from 1800
K in a cometary knot located in the inner region of the nebula are about 2.5'(arcmin) from the CS, and is calculated at about 900 K in the outer region at the distance of 5.6'.
Videos
See also
*
New General Catalogue
The ''New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars'' (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxies, star clusters and ...
(NGC)
References
External links
*
*
NASA/JPL-Caltech - The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293)NightSkyInfo – The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293)Snopes - Helix Eye of God - Urban Legend*
Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) at Constellation Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Helix Nebula
Aquarius (constellation)
Articles containing video clips
063b
NGC objects
Planetary nebulae