About 10,600 years ago a star like ours exploded and this is what it looks like today…awesome isn’t it, but there’s no need to worry as our life giving star still has 4.5 billion years to go!
The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) was formed when a massive red giant star exploded, resulting in a white dwarf star forming at the nebula centre, expanding band of gases and dust can be seen surrounding the whole area as the star shed its outer layers into space.
The Helix Nebula is the closest planetary nebula to Earth and can be found very easily at the moment in a dark sky with binoculars or telescope in the constellation of Aquarius.
Image taken at my Stardust Observatory with Meade 10inch LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and Canon 6D Mark11 camera attached. 35X3 minute images captured with dark frames and ISO 2500, stacked in DSS and processed in PS.
German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding discovered the Helix Nebula in about 1824. It is estimated to be about 10,600 years old when the explosion was created and the star could have had planets, moons, comets and other celestial objects orbiting around it just like our Earth.
To read more about this spectacular celestial object please go to the links below:
https://theplanets.org/nebula-facts/helix-nebula/
https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/