The Cats Paw Nebula . ... Credit Copyright: Bernd Flach-Wilken Volker Wendel (Spiegelteam), 2002 Namibia trip Explanation: As soon as we find out whose cat did this . ... No cat, though, could have created the vast Cat's Paw Nebula visible in Scorpius . At 5500 light years distant, Cat's Paw is an emission nebula with a red color that originates from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms. ... Pictured above , the Cat's Paw nebula was photographed during an astrophotography expedition to Namibia . ...