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.
— with PVGS
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