The result is the round, eye-shaped structure of dust and ionized gas you see here. All said, the material from the nebula reaches out about four light-years from the central star, so that tells you just how big the helix nebula actually is. But if that's still not big enough for you, click on over to the ESO's site, where you can download hi-res, wallpaper-worthy shots. And see exactly what infrared imaging does for you via the ESO video below.