                        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.

                                 2026 June 9
        A starfield surrounds a complex nebula with many red and blue
    filaments. Dark streams of dust also populate the nebula. Please see
               the explanation for more detailed information.

                                Thor's Helmet
           Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis, Christian Sasse

   Explanation: Thor not only has his own day (Thursday), but a helmet in
   the heavens. Popularly called Thor's Helmet, NGC 2359 is a hat-shaped
   cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages. Heroically sized even for a
   Norse god, Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the
   cosmic head-covering is more like an interstellar bubble, blown by a
   fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble's center. 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 toward the constellation of the
   Great Overdog. This sharp image is a combination of deep images taken
   in light emitted by hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue). The star in the
   center of Thor's Helmet is expected to explode in a spectacular
   supernova sometime within the next few thousand years.

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                                    1995)
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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