NGC 6334, Cat’s Paw Nebula(True Color)

NGC 6334, Cat’s Paw Nebula, True Color  Nebulas 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 which are excited by uv light from nearby stars. 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. Framed by red-blue clouds, the bright red bubbles are the dominant feature in the image. After gas and dust inside the nebula collapse to form stars, the stars may in turn heat up the pressurized gas surrounding them, causing it to expand into space and create bubbles. The Cats Paw occupies about 3/4 of a degree in the sky(less than two moon diameters). At a distance of 5500 light years this makes it 70 light years in actual size. This true color image is made up by light emitted by hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur atoms. This image in true color is dominated by Hydrogen emission which is red and Oxygen emission which is blue. It was discovered by astronomer John Herschel in 1837, who observed it from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. The nebula is located in the Carina -Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way. Companion images show the Cats Paw in false color in the Hydrogen red palette and in the Hubble palette(Hydrogen green).

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