[petuniasevan]

I know that some naysayer is going to show up and tell us all how this image is "misleading" because it is the result of a stream of electronic data. DUUHHH! Every image from every remote probe, orbiting telescope, and spacecraft is sent this way!

Sure, this image seems unreal. Oh, it's real, all right. It just doesn't show what human eyes would see. Photos like this are processed to emphasize certain details, and for a good reason. The astronomers and astrophysicists are studying this nebula to learn more about the dying star within, not hawking this as art (though it unwittingly is).

By the way, the cometary knots you see are huge. Each one is the diameter of our solar system, and the "tail" on each measures about 100 billion miles. They seem to originate from the interaction of fast-moving shock waves interacting with slower-moving earlier mass ejections.

[petuniasevan]

Here's a wide shot of the entire Helix Nebula for proportion.

Get on the APOD PING list!

[petuniasevan]

Someone re-oriented the image or boo-booed.

which is toward the bottom left should read top right.

[RightWhale]

They say the cometary knots may collapse to form Pluto-like objects, and that such objects would be common in the galaxy. It could be that the Kuiper Belt region of solar system space beyond Pluto is populated with such objects.

[Helix]

Helical BUMP!