This nebula, also known as NGC 633 or the Bear Claw Nebula, lies near the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. It was first recorded by British astronomer John Herschel in 1837 during his stay in South Africa, using one of the largest telescopes in the world at the time.
The Nebula is 5,500 light years distant in the direction of the constellation Scorpius (the Scorpion). The gas cloud is about 50 light years across; it appears red because its blue and green light are scattered and absorbed more efficiently by material between the nebula and the Earth. The red light comes mainly from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms.
NGC 6334 is one of the most active nurseries of massive stars in our galaxy; the nebula hides new blue stars that are each nearly 10 times the mass of our Sun and only a few million years old. There are also many new ‘baby’ stars, deep within the dust. The Nebula could contain several tens of thousands of stars.
This image of the Cat’s Paw Nebula was created from images taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) instrument at the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The images are combined and taken through blue, green and red filters, as well as a special filter designed to let through the light of glowing hydrogen.
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