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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Thor's Helmet
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.
| Date | June 5, 2010 |
|---|---|
| Credit |
Credit & Copyright: Star Shadows Remote Observatory and PROMPT/UNC (Steve Mazlin, Jack Harvey, Rick Gilbert, and Daniel Verschatse) |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |