NGC 2359

NGC 2359, also known as ducks fog and Thor's helmet, is a Wolf -Rayet ring nebula ( a special type of emission nebula ) in the constellation Canis Major. NGC 2359 has an apparent magnitude of 11.45 mag and an angular extent of 10.0 '× 5.0 '. This emission nebula is in contrast to most other not by O - stars ( such as the Orion Nebula ) or white dwarfs (such as the planetary nebula ) stimulated to emit light, but by a Wolf- Rayet star: HD 56925 (WR 7, HIP 35378 ). Let spectral analyzes suggest that the bubble- shaped nebula probably from a mixture composed of material that has lost at an earlier ejection of the central Wolf- Rayet star, and from the surrounding interstellar medium that swirled through the interaction with its strong stellar wind, compacted and is ionized.

The northwestern foothills of NGC 2359 is cataloged as IC 468; the object NGC 2361 is a node in NGC 2359th