A gigantic new image from ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) gives a detailed view of the stellar nurseries NGC 6334 and NGC 6357.
This spectacular image from ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope shows the Cat’s Paw Nebula (upper right) and the Lobster Nebula (lower left); these dramatic objects are regions of active star formation where the hot young stars are causing the surrounding hydrogen gas to glow red; the very rich field of view also includes dark clouds of dust; with around two billion pixels this is one of the largest images ever released by ESO. Image credit: ESO.
Thanks to the power of VST’s OmegaCAM camera, this new image reveals tendrils of light-obscuring dust rippling throughout NGC 6334 and NGC 6357.
At 49,511 x 39,136 pixels this is one of the largest images ever released by ESO.
Also known as the Cat’s Paw Nebula and the Bear Claw Nebula, NGC 6334 is one of the most active stellar nurseries in the night sky, nurturing thousands of young, hot stars whose visible light is unable to reach us.
NGC 6357, also known as the Lobster Nebula, is actually a ‘cluster of clusters,’ containing at least three clusters of young stars, including many hot, massive, luminous stars.
NGC 6334 is located approximately 5,500 light-years away from Earth, while NGC 6357 is more remote, at a distance of 8,000 light-years. Both are in the southern constellation of Scorpius.
These two objects were discovered in June 1837 by the British astronomer John Herschel.
At the time, the limited telescopic power available to Herschel, who was observing visually, only allowed him to document the brightest ‘toepad’ of the Cat’s Paw Nebula.
It was to be many decades before the true shapes of the nebulae became apparent in photographs — and their popular names coined.
The three toepads visible to modern telescopes, as well as the claw-like regions in the Lobster Nebula, are actually regions of gas — predominantly hydrogen — energized by the light of brilliant newborn stars.
With masses around ten times that of the Sun, these stars radiate intense UV light.
When this light encounters hydrogen atoms still lingering in the stellar nursery that produced the stars, the atoms become ionized.
Viewing nebulae in different wavelengths of light gives rise to different visual comparisons on the part of human observers. When seen in longer wavelength infrared light, for example, one portion of NGC 6357 resembles a dove, and the other a skull; it has therefore acquired the additional name of the War and Peace Nebula.
