Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  HD56274  ·  HD56501  ·  HD56525  ·  HD56595  ·  HD56771  ·  HD56772  ·  HD56829  ·  HD56830  ·  HD56831  ·  HD56970  ·  HD57008  ·  HD57027  ·  HD57057  ·  HD57083  ·  HD57084  ·  HD57369  ·  IC 468  ·  LBN 1040  ·  LBN 1041  ·  NGC 2359  ·  Sh2-298
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Thor's Helmet, Carlos Uriarte
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Thor's Helmet

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Thor's Helmet, Carlos Uriarte
Powered byPixInsight

Thor's Helmet

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Description

The nebula NGC 2359 is a helmet-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-shaped appendages, popularly called “Thor's Helmet.” Heroic in size even for a Norse god, Thor's helmet is approximately 30 light years in diameter. In fact, the hull is more like an interstellar bubble…, a fast wind from the bright, massive star near the center of the bubble that inflates a region within the surrounding molecular cloud. Known as a Wolf-Rayet star, the central star is an extremely hot giant believed to be in a brief stage of supernova evolution. NGC 2359 is located about 15,000 light years away, in the constellation Canis Major. The remarkably detailed image. It is a mixed cocktail of data from broadband and narrowband filters that captures natural-looking stars as well as the brightness of the nebula's filamentary structures. A greenish-blue color stands out, coming from the strong emission due to the oxygen atoms in the incandescent gas.

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Thor's Helmet, Carlos Uriarte