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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Thor's Helmet
NASA ^ | 17 Mar, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Hopkins (East Coast Astronomer)

Posted on 03/17/2025 12:58:40 PM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa; thorshelmet
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

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.

1 posted on 03/17/2025 12:58:40 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 03/17/2025 12:59:02 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 03/17/2025 1:00:01 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

4 posted on 03/17/2025 1:00:45 PM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: MtnClimber

bttt


5 posted on 03/17/2025 1:01:04 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: MtnClimber
Also looks like the FTD Florist logo.


6 posted on 03/17/2025 1:14:12 PM PDT by dayglored (This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms 118:24)
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To: MtnClimber

Looks like a screaming skull.


7 posted on 03/17/2025 1:15:46 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
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To: MtnClimber

Cool.


8 posted on 03/17/2025 1:23:02 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: dayglored

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

Maybe its a Trans.


9 posted on 03/17/2025 1:44:17 PM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (Hail to Pitt!)
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To: FroggyTheGremlim

Mercury, the Winged Messenger of the gods


10 posted on 03/17/2025 2:02:07 PM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: MtnClimber

The real Thor
Blnk
11 posted on 03/17/2025 2:59:51 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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