Explanation: At the right, Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359) seems to gaze across a lovely star field. The broad skyscape itself covers about 1.5 degrees or 3 full moons toward the constellation Canis Major. A close look at the lower left corner of the image might identify the object of the cosmic stare as a faint, round nebula. Heroically sized even for a Norse god, Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across. 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. In contrast, the faint, round nebula is a planetary nebula, the gaseous shroud of a dying lower mass star. The distance to Thor's Helmet is estimated to be about 15,000 light-years.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: NGC 2359 - planetary nebula - Wolf-Rayet star - Planetarnaya tumannost' - zvezdy Vol'fa-Raie Publikacii so slovami: NGC 2359 - planetary nebula - Wolf-Rayet star - Planetarnaya tumannost' - zvezdy Vol'fa-Raie
Sm. takzhe: M27: eto ne kometa Dzhons-Emberson-1 Sharpless 308: tumannost' Golova Del'fina Kol'cevaya tumannost' vokrug WR 134 Kol'ca vokrug tumannosti Kol'co HFG1 i Eibell 6: planetarnye tumannosti Shlem Tora Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>