Helix Nebula

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space

after scouring the Zazzle market place for a while, I settled on this as my choice for today. By les_etoiles,
another talented creative from the Zazzle community!

Helix Nebula

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"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 cosmic butterflies were named for their resemblance to gas-giant planets.

"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."

Read more at the JPL/Spitzer website.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Su (Univ. of Ariz.)

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