Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  NGC 2359
NGC2359 - Thor's Helmet, Ganesh Raja M
NGC2359 - Thor's Helmet
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NGC2359 - Thor's Helmet

NGC2359 - Thor's Helmet, Ganesh Raja M
NGC2359 - Thor's Helmet
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NGC2359 - Thor's Helmet

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Description

NGC 2359 is an emission nebula in the constellation Canis Major. This nebula is called Thor's Helmet nebula, as it resembles the helmet of the Norse God Thor.  The nebula is approximately 11,960 light years away and 30 light-years in size. 

The central star is the Wolf-Rayet star WR7, and is considered to be 280,000 times more bright than our Sun and 16 times more massive.  It may well undergo a type of stellar explosion known as a supernova in the near future.  The star's 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.[5] The expansion rate of different portions of the nebula varies from 10 km/s to at least 30 km/s, leading to age estimates of 78,500 - 236,000 years.

This image is shot in the SHO hubble palette with filters capturing emission lines from Sulphur, Hydrogen and Oxygen elements.  Blue in the image indicate areas rich in oxygen.  The golden color indicate areas rich in Hydrogen and Sulphur.

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NGC2359 - Thor's Helmet, Ganesh Raja M