NEW YORK: The European Space Agency (ESA) just released a brightly colored image of NGC 2359. The nebula is also known as Thor’s Helmet, due to the gas arches stemming out of the central bulge and curving towards the top — which create a shape reminiscent of the Norse god’s winged helmet.
The stunning image is actually a combination of two photos — captured by the ESA XMM-Newton space observatory’s EPIC cameras and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory’s Stars and Shadows Remote Observatory South.
The vivid colors provide the legend to understanding the nebula’s composition. The bright blue patches reveal X-ray emissions spotted by the EPIC cameras, while the pale green and red regions glowing from ionized hydrogen and oxygen are shown by the Stars and Shadows.
The intense X-ray emissions documented by the XMM-Newton are coming from a Wolf-Rayet star in the middle of the nebula called HD 56925. Old and enormous, the star is releasing great amounts of material at a dizzying rate, losing mass equivalent to the Sun in under 100,000 years. Mass loss appears as wind moving around the nebula at speeds of 932 miles per second.
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