Astronomy Picture of the Day
    


The Cats Paw Nebula
<< Yesterday 17.07.2003 Tomorrow >>
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 . . . Nebulae are as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. 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. 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, the Cat's Paw nebula was photographed during an astrophotography expedition to Namibia.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
 < July 2003  >
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031


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.

Based on Astronomy Picture Of the Day

Publications with keywords: Cat's Paw nebula - emission nebula
Publications with words: Cat's Paw nebula - emission nebula
See also:
All publications on this topic >>