Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  NGC 2359
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC2359 Thor's Helmet (SHO) in the constellation of Canis Major, Phil Swift
NGC2359 Thor's Helmet (SHO) in the constellation of Canis Major
Powered byPixInsight

NGC2359 Thor's Helmet (SHO) in the constellation of Canis Major

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC2359 Thor's Helmet (SHO) in the constellation of Canis Major, Phil Swift
NGC2359 Thor's Helmet (SHO) in the constellation of Canis Major
Powered byPixInsight

NGC2359 Thor's Helmet (SHO) in the constellation of Canis Major

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Thor's Helmet is an emission nebula in the constellation Canis Major.

The nebula is approximately 3,670 parsecs (11.96 thousand light years) away and 30 light-years in size.

The central star is the Wolf-Rayet star WR7, an extremely hot star thought to be in a brief pre-supernova stage of evolution.

It is similar in nature to the Bubble Nebula, but interactions with a nearby large molecular cloud are thought to have contributed to the more complex shape and curved bow-shock structure of Thor's Helmet.

The nebula has an overall bubble shape, but with complex filamentary structures.

The nebula contains several hundred solar masses of ionised material, plus several thousand more of unionised gas.

It is largely interstellar material swept up by winds from the central star, although some material does appear to be enriched with the products of fusion and is likely to come directly from the star, itself.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

NGC2359 Thor's Helmet (SHO) in the constellation of Canis Major, Phil Swift