MSGID: 1:153/757.0 d24dfbc9
TZUTC: -0700
CHRS: LATIN-1 2
                        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.

                                2025 March 17
     The image shows a starfield with an oval shaped red and light-blue
       tinged nebula in the center Please see the explanation for more
                            detailed information.

                                Thor's Helmet
       Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Hopkins (East Coast Astronomer)

   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 mixed cocktail of data from
   narrowband filters, capturing not only natural looking stars but
   details of the nebula's filamentary structures. The star in the center
   of Thor's Helmet is expected to explode in a spectacular supernova
   sometime within the next few thousand years.

                       Tomorrow's picture: sky danger
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
 * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)
SEEN-BY: 19/10 105/81 106/201 128/187 129/305 134/100 153/135 143
SEEN-BY: 153/148 151 153 757 6809 7083 7715 154/110 218/700 840 221/1
SEEN-BY: 221/6 360 226/30 227/114 229/110 114 206 307 317 400 426
SEEN-BY: 229/428 470 664 700 705 240/1120 266/512 291/111 301/1 113
SEEN-BY: 301/812 320/219 322/757 335/364 341/66 342/200 396/45 460/58
SEEN-BY: 460/256 1124 633/280 712/848 902/26 5020/400 1042 8912 5054/30
SEEN-BY: 5075/35
PATH: 153/757 221/6 301/1 460/58 229/426