Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  NGC 2359  ·  Sh2-298
NGC2359 (Thor's Helmet), Dean Carr
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NGC2359 (Thor's Helmet)

NGC2359 (Thor's Helmet), Dean Carr
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NGC2359 (Thor's Helmet)

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Description

NGC2359, commonly known as the Thor’s Helmet Nebula because of its appearance, is an emission nebula surrounding a Wolf-Rayet star (WR7) approximately 12,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Canis Major.

Wolf-Rayet stars such as WR7 are hot, massive and luminous stars that have burnt off most of their hydrogen fuel and are undergoing nuclear fusion of elements such as helium in their cores to generate energy. This picture is likely a ‘before’ image of WR7 prior to it eventually exploding as a supernova.

The picture was formed by combining individual images taken with two different filters that allow imaging of ionised Hydrogen (Ha) and Oxygen (OIII). It was processed in PixInsight using a two-colour palette (Red = Ha, Green = Ha/OIII blend and Blue = OIII). It has been cropped and resampled by 120% for aesthetic reasons.

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  • NGC2359 (Thor's Helmet), Dean Carr
    Original
  • Final
    NGC2359 (Thor's Helmet), Dean Carr
    B

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NGC2359 (Thor's Helmet), Dean Carr