NGC 7293 – the Helix Nebula, the Sun’s Future Revealed
In the southern and equatorial sky there is an object that often provokes an immediate reaction when seen for the first time: NGC 7293, better known as the Helix Nebula. It is not a galaxy nor a star cluster, but something far more personal to our own cosmic story: the final fate of a Sun-like star.
🌌 A surprisingly nearby neighbor
NGC 7293 lies at a distance of about 650–700 light-years, in the constellation of Aquarius, making it one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth.
Despite its large apparent size in the sky (nearly as wide as the full Moon), its surface brightness is low, so it is best observed from dark skies with appropriate instruments.
📸 Images from LilTecan
The LilTecan team has photographed the planetary nebula NGC7293 at different wavelengths using different LRGB+Ha+O[III] and S[II] filters.
☀️ The luminous remains of a Sun-like star
What truly sets NGC 253 apart is the fact that it is a starburst galaxy—a galaxy forming stars at a rate far hiThe Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula, a somewhat misleading historical name that has nothing to do with planets. It forms when a star similar to the Sun:
- Runs out of nuclear fuel.
- Expands into a red giant.
- Ejects its outer layers into space.
At the center of NGC 7293 lies an extremely hot white dwarf, the exposed core of the former star, whose intense ultraviolet radiation causes the surrounding gas to glow.
👉 In essence, we are seeing the distant future of our own Sun, some 5 billion years from now.
🌀 A structure far more complex than it appears
Although its appearance resembles a simple ring or helix, NGC 7293 is a three-dimensional and highly structured object:
- It contains filaments, arcs, and cometary knots, small dense clumps of gas with tails pointing away from the central star.
- These knots are cold, dense, and rich in molecules, and may survive for thousands of years.
- Modern studies suggest the nebula has a distorted torus-like structure, with additional outer layers.
Rather than a uniform cloud, it is a true astrophysical puzzle.n growth: forming stars too rapidly can eventually starve a galaxy of fuel and shut star formation down.
🔭 A laboratory for studying stellar death
Thanks to its proximity, NGC 7293 is a key object for research:
- It allows astronomers to study in great detail the interaction between stellar radiation and interstellar gas.
- It helps us understand how stars return heavy chemical elements to the interstellar medium, essential for forming new stars and planets.
- It serves as a benchmark for models of low-mass stellar evolution.
Every atom of oxygen, carbon, or nitrogen we observe here will eventually become part of future generations of stars.