Thor’s Helmet (Photo : Youtube)
The European Space Agency released some stunning photographs of the Nebula - NGC 2359. The shape and visuals of the nebula tend to resemble the Helmet worn by the mythological Norse God Thor. Hence it is known as Thor's Helmet.
The Nebula is located in the Cansis Major constellation. The photograph of the Nebula is breathtakingly beautiful, radiating several colors. The colors radiated are due to the emissions captured by different cameras that photographed the Nebula, according to CNET.
A bright blue glow is visible on the top part. It is actually the camera capturing the X-Rays, which are only visible across a certain spectrum of light. This part of the photograph was captured by the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM - Newton Space Observatory. This observatory has been orbiting around the earth since 1999, according to SciNews.
The visible red color to the left and the bright green color patches to the right were captured by the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The red color emanates from Ionized Hydrogen and the green color is nothing but visible spectrum of ionized oxygen. The three colors converge to form a beautiful imagery.
Right at the centre of the Nebula, a mega sized star is present. The star is named Wolf - Rayet Star, also known as HD 56925. The star is almost 20 times the mass and size of our own sun but it lives a life that is only a fraction of our sun. They tend to lose mass at a rapid rate and collapse soon.
Often when such stars collapse and die. They tend to cause supernovas and cataclysmic explosions. Currently the star is losing mass at a rate equivalent to 100,000 years of our sun. Furthermore, space winds there move at a much rapid pace at almost 900 miles per second. This rapid loss of mass is the cause of the bright X-Ray emissions.
