thors helmet nebula ngc 2359 [View all]

[moonshinegnomie]

16 hours of exposure time in my backyard,this is teh thors helmet nebula
its created from the gas blown off a very hot bright start as it nears the end of its life. the star that light it up has a surface temperature many times as hot as the sun. It is no longer fusing hydrogen into helium and instead if fusing helium and larger elements to form even larger ones up until it fuses silicon into iron. once that occurs the star will go supernova as iron requires more energy to fuse into heavier elements than the fusion process emits causing the star to collapse and explode

the link is from astrobin,where ive begun uploading all my complete astro images since it doesnt compress them there