We are part of a vast universe.

     What is our place in this amazing cosmos?

           What is your place in this world?

                     The sands of time may be limited!

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We may know immeasurably more about the universe than our ancestors did, and yet it increasingly seems that they knew something more essential about it than we do, something that escapes us.

                          - Vaclav Havel

Photo credit: Christine and David Smith, Steve Mandel,
Adam Block (KPNO Visitor Program), NOAO, AURA, NSF

NGC 2359 is a striking emission nebula with an impressive popular name - Thor's Helmet. Sure, its suggestive winged appearance might lead some to refer to it as the 'duck nebula,' and others see a fish face in it, but if you were a nebula which name would you choose? By any name NGC 2359 is a bubble-like nebula some 30 light-years across, blown by energetic winds from an extremely hot star seen near the center and classified as a Wolf-Rayet star. These stars are rare massive blue giants which develop stellar winds with speeds of millions of kilometers per hour. Interactions with a nearby large molecular cloud are thought to have contributed to this nebula's more complex shape and curved bow-shock structures. NGC 2359 is about 15,000 light-years distant from our solar system, toward the constellation Canis Major.