It is located about 3,560 light-years(1,090 Parsecs) away.
From parallax measurements,
it is located at a distance of roughly 2,300 light-years(710 Parsecs) from the Sun.
The Helix Nebula in the constellation of Aquarius lies about
700 light-years away, spanning about 0.8 Parsecs 2.5 light-years.
This constitutes evidence that there is a vast,
extended stellar disk that makes the galaxy more than 220,000 light-years(67,000 Parsecs) in diameter.
The extreme brightness from our point of view comes not so much because it is a particularly bright star,
but rather because it is only 8.6 light years away(2.6 Parsecs).
The extreme brightness from our point of view then comes not so much because it is a particularly bright
star, but rather because it is only 8.6 light years away(2.6 Parsecs).