miércoles, 29 de mayo de 2019

APOD: 2019 February 16 - NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet

APOD: 2019 February 16 - NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet 
Image Credit & CopyrightIgnacio Diaz Bobillo
Explanation: NGC 2359 is a helmet-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages 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 more like an interstellar bubble, blown as a fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble's center inflates a region within the 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. NGC 2359 is located about 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Canis Major. The remarkably detailed image is a mixed cocktail of data from broadband and narrowband filters that captures natural looking stars and the glow of the nebula's filamentary structures. It highlights a blue-green color from strong emission due to oxygen atoms in the glowing gas.



Tomorrow's picture: shadow of a mechanical martian

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