This photograph of the coil-shaped Helix Nebula, released Friday, May 9, 2003, is one of the largest and most detailed celestial images ever made. The image shows a fine web of "bicycle-spoke" features embedded in the colorful ring of gas. At 650 light-years away, the Helix is one of the nearest planetary nebulae to Earth. A planetary nebula is the glowing gas around a dying, Sun-like star.
(Photo: AP/NASA)
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