Popularly known as the "Eye of God" or "Eye of Sauron," it is officially designated as the **Helix Nebula (NGC 7293)**, a large planetary nebula.

It is located roughly 700 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius, making it one of the closest planetary nebulae to our solar system.

It forms when a sun-like star exhausts its nuclear fuel, shedding its outer layers of gas into space while its core collapses into a hot white dwarf.

Although it resembles a flat eye or bubble from Earth's vantage point, astronomers have discovered it is actually a trillion-mile-long cylinder or hourglass shape viewed nearly end-on.

At its center sits a scorching white dwarf star, whose intense ultraviolet radiation causes the surrounding shell of expanding gas to fluoresce and glow brightly.

High-resolution Hubble imagery exposed thousands of mysterious, delicate gaseous "cometary knots" packed with cometary tails radiating outward from the central star.

It gives astronomers a direct preview of what our own Sun will experience roughly 5 billion years from now when it finishes burning through its hydrogen reserves.

The glowing ring structure spans several light-years across, with its outer gaseous boundaries stretching even further into the interstellar medium.

The color variations trace different elements and temperatures: hot blue gases glow closer to the core, while cooler red/orange hydrogen and nitrogen emissions outline the outer ring.

By measuring the rate at which the gas shell expands outward, scientists estimate that the planetary nebula formed approximately 10,600 years ago.