NGC 7293, better known as the Helix nebula, displays its ultraviolet glow courtesy of NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).

In this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, "cometary knots" on the Helix Nebula show blue-green heads caused by excitation of their molecular material from shocks or ultraviolet radiation.

In this combined image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), the star’s dusty outer layers are unraveling into space, glowing from the intense ultraviolet radiation being pumped out by the hot stellar core.

This composite picture of the Helix Nebula was assembled by astronomers by blenindg ultra-sharp NASA Hubble Space Telescope images combined with the wide view of the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

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.

In this false-color image, NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes have teamed up to capture the complex structure of Helix nebula in unprecedented detail. The composite picture is made up of visible data from Hubble and infrared data from Spitzer.

An ultraviolet image of the planetary nebula NGC 7293, aka the Helix Nebula. It is the nearest example of what happens to a star, like our own Sun, as it approaches the end of its life.