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

Comets Kick up Dust in Helix Nebula

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.

About the Object	Object Name: Helix Nebula, NGC 7293 Object Type: Planetary Nebula Position (J2000): RA: 22h29m38.55s Dec: -20d49m26.00s Distance: 650 light-years (200 parsecs) Constellation: Aquarius
About the Data	Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Su (Univ. of Ariz.) Instrument: IRAC + MIPS Wavelength: 3.6-4.5 (blue), 5.8-8.0 (green), 24 (red) microns Exposure Date: 2004-10-30 for IRAC and 2004-11-02 for MIPS Exposure Time: 160 sec at IRAC bands and 240 sec at 24 microns Image Scale: 31.5 x 23.7 arcmin Orientation: N is 61 deg CW from up Release Date: 2007/02/12
Observers	Kate Su (University of Arizona) George Rieke (University of Arizona) Patrick J. Huggins (New York University) You-Hua Chu (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Robert Gruendl (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Ralf Napiwotzki (University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom) Thomas Rauch (University Tubingen, Germany) William B. Latter (NASA's Herschel Science Center) Kevin Volk (Gemini Observatory)   Archival IRAC data from: J. L. Hora (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) W. B. Latter (NASA/ Herschel Science Center) M. Marengo (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) G.G. Fazio (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) H.A. Smith (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Individual Images

Best-available resolution (without packaging) Screen-Resolution (450x374): JPEG High-Resolution (4279x3559): JPEG | Mac TIFF | PC TIFF Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Su (Univ. of Ariz.)

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