APOD: NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet (2014 Feb 15)

[APOD Robot]

NGC 2359: 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 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.

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[Beyond]

There aughta be a Hammer something or other to go with Thor's Helmet, or how is Thor going to make the bad guys really thor and regretful that they're bad guys

[Boomer12k]

You get some effect with 3d glasses...coooool!!!

Probably get banned for this, or moved...but here goes...

Here is Thor AND HIS HELMET for comparison...you can see the resemblance. For those who have never seen Thor's actual helmet. Also his HAMMER....we need a Thor's Hammer Nebula...someone get to work finding something....

I did this back in the late 70's. It is 24x30 inches. It was done in Acrylic paint and Linseed oil, and I think it has a coating of a preserver.

You can imagine what is going to happen when he stands up...."THOR SAYS THEE, NAY, VARLET!!!!"

:---[===] *

[starsurfer]

You get some effect with 3d glasses...coooool!!!

Probably get banned for this, or moved...but here goes...

Here is Thor AND HIS HELMET for comparison...you can see the resemblance. For those who have never seen Thor's actual helmet. Also his HAMMER....we need a Thor's Hammer Nebula...someone get to work finding something....

I did this back in the late 70's. It is 24x30 inches. It was done in Acrylic paint and Linseed oil, and I think it has a coating of a preserver.

You can imagine what is going to happen when he stands up...."THOR SAYS THEE, NAY, VARLET!!!!"

:---[===] *

There is actually a planetary nebula in the constellation of Centaurus known as the Hammer Nebula! Its catalogue number is VBRC 5.

[neufer]

<<In the poem Völuspá, a dead völva recounts the history of the universe and foretells the death of Thor:

• Thor will do battle with the great serpent during the immense mythical war waged at Ragnarök, and there he will slay the monstrous snake, yet after he will only be able to take nine steps before succumbing to the venom of the beast. Afterwards, the sky will turn black before fire engulfs the world, the stars will disappear, flames will dance before the sky, steam will rise, the world will be covered in water... and then it will be raised again, green and fertile.>>

[quigley]

Is it known which of the stars is the Wolf-Rayet star responsible for the "bubble"? Or is it not visible?

[neufer]

Is it known which of the stars is the Wolf-Rayet star responsible for the "bubble"? Or is it not visible?

It is the brightest star central to the blue Helmet (right at the upper edge of the small inner bubble).

<<In astronomy WR 7 or HD 56925/HIP 35 378 is a Wolf-Rayet star which is a central part of the nebula NGC 2359 (also known as the Thor's Helmet Nebula) in the constellation of Canis Major. The distance is uncertain, varying between 3.5 kiloparsecs and 6.9 kiloparsecs. This star is calculated to be 280.000 times brighter than our Sun, 16 times more massive, and 1.41 times larger with a surface temperature of 112,000 Kelvin. Stars of its kind are characterised by a rapid loss of stellar mass, driven by chemically enriched high-speed stellar winds. It is estimated that it loses mass at the rate of 7x10⁻⁵ solar masses each year through winds of 1,545 km/s.

Studies of the interaction between WR 7 and the surrounding nebula assumes a distance of 5 kiloparsecs, and have discovered the existence of a HI region of 70x37 kiloparsecs that expands at 12 km/s, possibly created by the progenitor of the current star, a type-O main sequence star. It seems likely that there is a bow shock acting on the southern edge of the nebula, possibly reduced when the star was at the stage of red supergiant.>>