雷神的头盔

2024年1月9日

Thor’s Helmet
Image Credit & Copyright: Ritesh Biswas

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 with 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 remarkably 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: open space

雷神的头盔
影像提供与版权: Ritesh Biswas

说明: 雷神索尔不但有他专属的历日（星期四），天空中更有他的头盔。名为雷神头盔的NGC 2359，是一团有侧翼的头盔状宇宙云。然而，就是对北欧的神祇来说，这顶宽度达30光年的头盔也是庞大无比。其实这顶头盔较像星际气泡，是由中心附近的明亮大质量恒星发出的高速恒星风，在周围分子云里吹出的天体。这颗分类为沃尔夫-拉叶星的中心星，则是处在前超新星演化短暂阶段的极端炽热巨星。座落在大犬座方向的NGC 2359，离我们约有15,000光年远。这幅极为清晰的影像，整合了透过窄波段滤镜所取得的影像数据，以记录自然色泽的恒星，并突显这团星云的云气丝之细微结构。位在雷神头盔中心的恒星，预期在接下来的数千年内，会发生壮观的超新星爆炸。 （Thor’s Helmet 雷神的头盔、索尔的头盔）

明日的图片: open space