... That's about 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud's estimated distance of 3,000 light-years. Spherical Planetary Nebula Abell 39 . ... Well within our own Milky Way galaxy, the cosmic sphere is roughly 7,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Hercules. ... NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula . ... During the Shelios Expedition to Greenland in late August, even veteran sky enthusiasts saw auroras so colorful, so fast changing, and so unusual in form that they could remember nothing like it. ...