Posted on 03/07/2013 7:10:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: 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, made using broadband and narrowband filters, captures striking details of the nebula's filamentary structures. It shows off a blue-green color from strong emission due to oxygen atoms in the glowing gas.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit & Copyright: Martin Rusterholz (CXIELO Observatory)]
Does Uranus come with an Asgard?
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Neat stuff!
30 light years across...hard to wrap my brain around that
Stand back kid, that thing's gonna blow!
I don’t see Thor’s helmet....I see some sort of alien mouse skull. Perhaps that’s why I’m not an astronomer??
Why do I suddenly hear Wagner Music playing in the background?
Very Cool, Civ!
Valhalla, I am coming....
9,454,254,955,488,000 miles......I think.
Perhaps...
:)
CA....
I do the jokes about Uranus around here. Harumph.
These sizes and distances are simply astronomical! Maybe we are just the size of atoms (large ones) and the sizes and distances are simply a matter of our own mathematics - using our own distances - maybe in the real world, a mile is a millimeter or less. All of this is really out of this world.
“Does Uranus come with an Asgard?”
My.... aren’t you spunky today?!! LOL!!
Hey, at least I didn’t post something unsavory like, “in before Uranus jokes.”
I too thought it looked like a skull (a human one, but still).
I suppository you’re right about that.
Oh, never mind. I'll do it.
Upon first seeing the image,I laughed to myself at how much it indeed looked like Thor’s Helmet. After reading your comment I went back to look at the image and laughed again after seeing some sort of alien mouse skull. You know, the optical illusion phenomenon, one image switching back and forth to another. :-)
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