Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Scorpius (Sco)  ·  Contains:  NGC 6357
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NGC 6357 - the lobster, Andrew Lockwood
NGC 6357 - the lobster
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NGC 6357 - the lobster

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NGC 6357 - the lobster, Andrew Lockwood
NGC 6357 - the lobster
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6357 - the lobster

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Description

Not far from the Cat's Paw is the nebula NGC 6357 in Scorpius, which is variously referred to as the Lobster Nebula or the War and Peace nebula. I have no idea why. In the middle is a cluster of extremely large stars, the cluster is catalogued as Pismis 24, and one of the stars initially thought to be 300 solar masses (a record) turns out to be three 100 solar mass stars, which is still pretty ridiculously big.

These two nebulae are about 5500 light years from earth, and when viewed in widefield images of this regions appear a much darker red than the other HII regions nearby. I suspect there is significant reddening caused by galactic dust partially obscuring them.

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NGC 6357 - the lobster, Andrew Lockwood