Wide Angle: The Cats Paw Nebula
Explanation:
Nebulae are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps
cats are for getting into
trouble.
Still, no known
cat
could have created the vast
Cat's Paw Nebula visible in
Scorpius.
At 5,500 light years distant, Cat's
Paw is an
emission nebula with a red color that originates from an abundance of ionized
hydrogen atoms.
Alternatively known as the
Bear Claw Nebula or
NGC 6334,
stars nearly ten times the mass of our
Sun have been born
there
in only the past few million years.
Pictured above,
a wide angle, deep field image of the
Cat's Paw
nebula was culled from the second
Digitized Sky Survey.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
