Astronomy Picture of the Day - Thor's Helmet

NASA ^ | 9 Jun, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis, Christian Sasse

[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 combination of deep images taken in light emitted by hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue). The star in the center of Thor's Helmet is expected to explode in a spectacular supernova sometime within the next few thousand years.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[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

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[ComputerGuy]

He looks PO’d

[Red Badger]

[Red Badger]

Yeah, he’s pretty Thor.....................

[No name given]

Wow.

[SkyDancer]

Great images. I can imagine solar systems buried in all those star clusters in those galaxies.

[NavyShoe]

I bet she gives good helmet.

[null and void]

The Thunder God went for a ride
upon his favorite filly
“I’m THOR!” He cried,
his steed replied
“You forgot the thaddle thilly.”