APOD: NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet (2020 Jun 12)

[APOD Robot]

NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet

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 of the Great Overdog. The remarkably sharp image is a mixed cocktail of data from broadband and narrowband filters using three different telescopes. It captures natural looking stars and the details of the nebula's filamentary structures. The predominant bluish hue is strong emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms in the glowing gas.

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[Boomer12k]

Maybe someday to be a Halo? Like the one the Cat's Eye has?

:---[===] *

[orin stepanek]

I think it looks like a dog with very big ears!

[NCTom]

Is the Wolf-Rayet visible in this photo?

[TheZuke!]

I think it looks like a dog with very big ears!

Don't you mean Thor's Donkey?

(I tried to include a .png outlining the donkey head, but I guess I need to use an image service such as Pinterest (which I don't have/use)
Edit: Thanks johnnydeep for the info on adding the photo!

[johnnydeep]

I think it looks like a dog with very big ears!

Don't you mean Thor's Donkey?

(I tried to include a .png outlining the donkey head, but I guess I need to use an image service such as Pinterest (which I don't have/use)

You can use the Attachments tab at the bottom to inline marked-up images from your own PC. Took me a while to realize that feature existed.

[johnnydeep]

Is the Wolf-Rayet visible in this photo?

I'm no expert, but I believe this is it, since it seems to be approximately in the center of the "bubble":

Wolf-Rayet start at center of NGC 2359

The particular Wolf-Rayet start here is WR 7 (HD 56925) [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WR_7].

Apparently, they are rare enough and interesting enough to each get their own number!

[johnnydeep]

NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet

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 of the Great Overdog. The remarkably sharp image is a mixed cocktail of data from broadband and narrowband filters using three different telescopes. It captures natural looking stars and the details of the nebula's filamentary structures. The predominant bluish hue is strong emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms in the glowing gas.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

Fun fact: today's APOD is an duplicate upgrade of the one from 2019-02-16: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190216.html.

So, how often are APODs recycled?

EDIT: Oops, a correction! The APOD hasn't actually been recycled as I first though, just "upgraded" to use a different and much prettier image. But the text description is mostly duplicated, all up to the details of how the image was created.

[neufer]

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<<A tube man, also known as a skydancer, air dancer, or wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man, and originally called the Tall Boy, is an inflatable moving advertising product comprising a long fabric tube (with two or more outlets), which is attached to and powered by an electrical fan. As the electrical fan blows air through the fabric tube, this causes the tube to move about in a dynamic dancing or flailing motion.

Peter Minshall, an artist from Trinidad and Tobago, came up with the concept, and it was developed by a team that included Israeli artist Doron Gazit and Arieh Dranger, for the 1996 Summer Olympics. Minshall originally called his invention the "Tall Boy". Gazit eventually patented the concept of an inflatable, dancing human-shaped balloon, and licensed the patent to various companies that manufacture and sell the devices.

Some local municipalities in the United States have banned the use of these products. An ordinance in Houston, which went into effect in 2010, prohibits the use of all attention-getting devices, claiming the use of such devices "contributes to urban visual clutter and blight and adversely affects the aesthetic environment and the safety and quality of life for the community and the citizens of the city.">>

[TheZuke!]

Some local municipalities in the United States have banned the use of these products. An ordinance in Houston, which went into effect in 2010, prohibits the use of all attention-getting devices, claiming the use of such devices "contributes to urban visual clutter and blight and adversely affects the aesthetic environment and the safety and quality of life for the community and the citizens of the city."

One is placed on top of a water tower in Rochester, Minnesota to keep buzzards from roosting/nesting there.

[TheZuke!]

Johnnydeep posts a picture

And forgets to point out the Bear Nebula!

bearNebula.JPG (51.33 KiB) Viewed 4505 times

[johnnydeep]

Johnnydeep posts a picture

And forgets to point out the Bear Nebula!


bearNebula.JPG

Cute! I admit I suck at seeing hidden objects in astronomical images. Even more so seeing images in constellations with suggestive names. I am reminded of the "Bart's Comet" episode of The Simpsons in which Bart is punished by having to be Skinner's assistant while star gazing. Skinner points out some constellations in the sky. One is just a single star that is called The Chariot Race! Here's the funny clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTFOG0h3Uho. And oh yeah, Bart also discovers a comet!

[orin stepanek]

Kinda; sorta; maybe like watching the puffy clouds roll by and
telling your friends w3hat they look like to you! 🥰