This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix
nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed by amateur astronomers for its
vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye.
The nebula, located about 700 light-years away in the constellation
Aquarius, belongs to a class of objects called planetary nebulae.
Discovered in the 18th century, these colorful beauties were named for
their resemblance to gas-giant planets like Jupiter.
Planetary nebulae are the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our
sun. When sun-like stars die, they puff out their outer gaseous layers.
These layers are heated by the hot core of the dead star, called a white
dwarf, and shine with infrared and visible colors. Our own sun will
blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about five billion years.
In Spitzer's infrared view of the Helix nebula, the eye looks more like
that of a green monster's. Infrared light from the outer gaseous layers is
represented in blues and greens. The white dwarf is visible as a tiny
white dot in the center of the picture. The red color in the middle of the
eye denotes the final layers of gas blown out when the star died.
The brighter red circle in the very center is the glow of a dusty disk
circling the white dwarf (the disk itself is too small to be resolved).
This dust, discovered by Spitzer's infrared heat-seeking vision, was most
likely kicked up by comets that survived the death of their star. Before
the star died, its comets and possibly planets would have orbited the star
in an orderly fashion. But when the star blew off its outer layers, the
icy bodies and outer planets would have been tossed about and into each
other, resulting in an ongoing cosmic dust storm. Any inner planets in the
system would have burned up or been swallowed as their dying star expanded.
So far, the Helix nebula is one of only a few dead-star systems in which
evidence for comet survivors has been found.
This image is made up of data from Spitzer's infrared array camera and
multiband imaging photometer. Blue shows infrared light of 3.6 to 4.5
microns; green shows infrared light of 5.8 to 8 microns; and red shows
infrared light of 24 microns.
