The Al Khatem Astronomical Observatory in Abu Dhabi has captured an image of a distinctive nebula called the “Thor’s Helmet” Nebula, which bears the symbol NGC2359, the Astronomy Centre tweeted on Sunday. The nebula is called so owing to its shape that resembles the helmet worn by the character “Thor” in movies and novels.
NGC2359 or Thor’s Helmet is an emission nebula located in the “Canis Major” constellation — 15,000 light years away from Earth, the Astronomy Centre informed.
The nebula is a large mass of gas, consisting mainly of hydrogen and oxygen. The red star in the middle is a very hot star, 280,000 times brighter than the sun, and its mass is 16 times greater than the sun’s mass.
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The Astronomy Centre further said that “Thor’s Helmet” Nebula is in the pre-supernova stage, and the stellar winds from the star interact with the surrounding gases, giving the helmet shape to the nebula.
Research indicates that the nebula’s expansion rate ranges between 10 and 30 km per second, giving the nebula an estimated age of between 80,000 years to 240,000 years.
The Thor’s Helmet’s image was taken from the Al Khatem Astronomical Observatory in the Abu Dhabi desert using a 14-inch telescope with hydrogen (green), oxygen (blue) and sulfur (red) filters.
The number of images reached 276, with each image lasting three minutes, meaning that the exposure time of the image was approximately 14 hours.