The Al Khatem Astronomical Observatory in Abu Dhabi captured an image of a distinctive nebula called the “Thor’s Helmet” Nebula, which bears the symbol NGC2359 It is an emission nebula located in the Canis Major constellation, 15 thousand light years away from us, and light needs 30 years to travel from one end to the other..
It is a large mass of gas that consists mainly of hydrogen and oxygen gas, and the red star in the middle is a very hot star, 280 thousand times brighter than the sun, and its mass is 16 times greater than the sun’s mass. It is in the pre-supernova stage, and the stellar winds emanating from the star interact with the surrounding gases, which is what gave the helmet shape to the nebula..
Research indicates that the nebula’s expansion rate ranges between 10 and 30 kilometers per second, which gives the nebula an estimated age of between 80 and 240 thousand years. It was named thus because its shape resembles the helmet worn by the character “Thor” in movies and novels..
The image was taken from the Al Khatem Astronomical Observatory in the Abu Dhabi desert using a 14-inch telescope and using hydrogen (green), oxygen (blue) and sulfur (red) filters. The number of images reached 276, with each image lasting 3 minutes, meaning that the exposure time of the image was approximately 14 hours..
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