APOD: 2025 July 21 Б Cats Paw Nebula from Webb Space Telescope
Explanation:
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 toward
the constellation of the Scorpion
(
Scorpius).
At 5,700
light years
distant, Cat's
Paw is an
emission nebula within a larger molecular cloud.
Alternatively known as the
Bear
Claw Nebula and cataloged as
NGC 6334,
stars nearly ten times the mass of our
Sun have been born
there in only the past few million years.
Pictured
here
is a recently released image of the Cat's Paw taken in
infrared light by the
James Webb Space Telescope.
This newly detailed view into
the nebula helps provide insight for how
turbulent
molecular clouds turn gas into stars.
Explore Your Universe:
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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.
