New images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope show the star-forming region NGC 6334, also known as the Cat’s Paw Nebula or Bear Claw Nebula.
This image from Spitzer’s IRAC and MIPS instruments shows the Cat’s Paw Nebula. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
The Cat’s Paw Nebula resides in the constellation Scorpius and is approximately 5,500 light-years away from Earth.
Discovered by English astronomer John Herschel in 1837, the star-forming region is estimated to be between 80 and 90 light-years across.
It extends beyond the left side of these images and intersects with a similar-sized star-forming region, NGC 6357, also known as the Lobster Nebula.
The new images of the Cat’s Paw Nebula were pulled from data collected for the Galactic Legacy Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire project (GLIMPSE).
One of the images (above) was compiled using data from the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and the Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) aboard Spitzer.
MIPS collects an additional ‘color’ of light in the infrared range, which reveals the red-colored features, created by dust that has been warmed by the hot gas and the light from nearby stars.
The second image is based on data from IRAC alone, so this dust is not visible.
The Cat’s Paw Nebula, imaged here by Spitzer’s IRAC instrument. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
“Framed by green clouds, the bright red bubbles are the dominant feature in the first image,” Spitzer team members said.
“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 green areas show places where radiation from hot stars collided with large molecules called ‘polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,’ causing them to fluoresce.”
In some cases, the bubbles may eventually ‘burst,’ creating the U-shaped features that are particularly visible in the second image.
“Spitzer is an infrared telescope, and infrared light is useful to astronomers because it can penetrate thick clouds of gas and dust better than optical light (the kind visible to the human eye),” the astronomers said.
“The black filaments running horizontally through the nebula are regions of gas and dust so dense, not even infrared light can pass through them.”
“These dense regions may soon be sites where another generation of stars will form.”
