Breathtaking new pictures of the Helix Nebula, a dying star 650 light years from Earth

This impressive picture shows a composite image of three telescopes showing the death of a star.



A higher definition image can be found here Daily Mail

The object lies 650 light years away from earth in the constellation of Aquarius and is a planetary nebulae.

This object, called the Helix nebula, lies 650 light-years away, in the constellation of Aquarius.

Also known by the catalog number NGC 7293, it is a typical example of a class of objects called planetary nebulae.

Planetary nebulae are actually the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our sun.

Daily Mail

When our own sun runs out of hydrogen and then later helium, in around 5 billion years, it will blossom into a similar planetary nebula, leaving behind a white dwarf about the same size as earth.

I wonder if the human race will still be around to witness it?

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I have this odd feeling that I'm being watched


Edit to add something more OT :

Originally posted by ollncasino
When our own sun runs out of hydrogen and then later helium, in around 5 billion years, it will blossom into a similar planetary nebula, leaving behind a white dwarf about the same size as earth.

I wonder if the human race will still be around to witness it?

I doubt it, considering that LESS THAN only 1 billion years ago, ALL life on earth was simple and single-celled. Humans will be LONG gone in 100 million years, let alone 5 Billion.

Space has all the coolest stuff.

I hope it goes supernova soon, So we can watch.

reply to post by watchitburn


Unless I am misunderstanding. If it were to blow today, it would take 650 years before we saw anything here on Earth. Wish I could watch it live though. Now THAT would be something!

reply to post by ollncasino


WOW !

And i also like all the other galaxies in the image, isnt it just breathtaking, imagine all the life forms

one day we will go where no earth man has gone for a while

we will be able to get close up to these amazing things

Originally posted by Daemonicon
reply to post by watchitburn

 

Unless I am misunderstanding. If it were to blow today, it would take 650 years before we saw anything here on Earth. Wish I could watch it live though. Now THAT would be something!

On the other hand, if a supernova exactly 650 LY away exploded 649 years and 364 days ago, we would see it tomorrow (and wouldn't know about it until tomorrow).

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
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I have this odd feeling that I'm being watched

edit on 10/8/2012 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

Very funny, took me a minute to get that. :-)

Astronomers locate the eye of Sauron !

Originally posted by ollncasino
When our own sun runs out of hydrogen and then later helium, in around 5 billion years, it will blossom into a similar planetary nebula, leaving behind a white dwarf about the same size as earth.

I wonder if the human race will still be around to witness it?

It was my understanding that before the sun gets to that stage, it would expand in size almost out to Jupiter before it collapses back on itself. If so, then no, we won't be around to see it.

Awesome picture though. I sure wish we could see a video of one from the moment of collapse onward.
I think space is the most wondrous and amazing thing the universe has to offer.

Originally posted by ShadowLink

Originally posted by ollncasino
When our own sun runs out of hydrogen and then later helium, in around 5 billion years, it will blossom into a similar planetary nebula, leaving behind a white dwarf about the same size as earth.

I wonder if the human race will still be around to witness it?

It was my understanding that before the sun gets to that stage, it would expand in size almost out to Jupiter before it collapses back on itself. If so, then no, we won't be around to see it.

My point is that humans wouldn't be around to even BEGIN seeing the Sun swell up.

Humans will not be around in 4 Billion, 3 Billion or even a half billion years from now. Even just one billion years is a long, long time. There is no species on earth that is even CLOSE to that old. In fact (as I stated before) even multi-cell life is only 800 million years old.

One billion years from now, if there is still intelligent life on earth, it most likely won't be human. Consider that 1 billion years ago, all the life on earth was single-celled. That means the single-celled life on earth today (like a bacteria) has enough time to evolve into a (multi-cell) intelligent species in 1 billion years.

It's a long time.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


I agree completely. In fact, I think 1 billion is an incomprehensible number when it regards time.

My point was though, that if this all started tomorrow, due to the expansion and melting consumption of earth and several other planets, no one would be around to witness the collapse of our sun.

Personally, I don't think we will make 500 thousand years. but who knows.

Originally posted by watchitburn
Space has all the coolest stuff.

I hope it goes supernova soon, So we can watch.

That's easy enough for you to say but what of the beings living on the planet circling it's star.. !

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Well, the star is dying anyway.

So whatever I have to say about it is irrelevant. It's going to happen whether I say anything or not. Your statement is not valid.

God, that just looks awesome. I wish I was born in the future to explore space. It's one of the most interesting things i've ever seen, so many things in it, planets, other mysteries within it. I'd would just LOVE to explore all of it. But by the time my life passes away, we will probably only be getting on Mars. Also, as a side note, anyone else notice how the sun looks like an eye? It even has eye lash type figures. Pretty cool.