Astronomy Picture of the Day - Thor's Helmet

NASA ^ | 17 Mar, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Hopkins (East Coast Astronomer)

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Thor not only has his own day (Thursday), but a helmet in the heavens. Popularly called Thor's Helmet, NGC 2359 is a hat-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages. Heroically sized even for a Norse god, Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the cosmic head-covering is more like an interstellar bubble, blown by a fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble's center. 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. NGC 2359 is located about 15,000 light-years away toward the constellation of the Great Overdog. This sharp image is a mixed cocktail of data from narrowband filters, capturing not only natural looking stars but details of the nebula's filamentary structures. The star in the center of Thor's Helmet is expected to explode in a spectacular supernova sometime within the next few thousand years.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

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[Magnum44]

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[dayglored]

Also looks like the FTD Florist logo.

[SkyDancer]

Looks like a screaming skull.

[No name given]

Cool.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

I dunno, that FTD critter looks like a chick - nice legs anyway.

Maybe its a Trans.

[telescope115]

Mercury, the Winged Messenger of the gods

[minnesota_bound]

The real Thor