This helmet-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages is popularly called Thor's Helmet.
Heroically sized even for a Norse god, Thor's Helmet
is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the helmet is actually more like an interstellar bubble, blown as a fast wind from the
bright, massive star near the bubble's center sweeps through a surrounding
molecular cloud. Known as a Wolf-Rayet
star, the central star is an extremely hot giant thought to be in a brief,
pre-supernova stage of evolution. Cataloged as NGC
2359, the nebula is located about 15,000 light-years away in the constellation
Canis Major.
The sharp image
captures striking details of the nebula's filamentary structures and also
records an almost emerald color from strong emission due
to oxygen atoms in the glowing gas.
February 03, 2014
Thor's Helmet
This helmet-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages is popularly called Thor's Helmet.
Heroically sized even for a Norse god, Thor's Helmet
is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the helmet is actually more like an interstellar bubble, blown as a fast wind from the
bright, massive star near the bubble's center sweeps through a surrounding
molecular cloud. Known as a Wolf-Rayet
star, the central star is an extremely hot giant thought to be in a brief,
pre-supernova stage of evolution. Cataloged as NGC
2359, the nebula is located about 15,000 light-years away in the constellation
Canis Major.
The sharp image
captures striking details of the nebula's filamentary structures and also
records an almost emerald color from strong emission due
to oxygen atoms in the glowing gas.
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