NGC 6334 - Cats Paw Nebula in Scorpius (Bruce Rohrlach)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Scorpius (Sco) · Contains: NGC 6334

NGC 6334 - Cats Paw Nebula in Scorpius, Bruce Rohrlach

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6334 - Cats Paw Nebula in Scorpius

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6334 - Cats Paw Nebula in Scorpius

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

I think I found the flaming cat !

The Cats Paw nebula (NGC 6334; aka Bear Claw nebula or Gum 64). HOO image in progress. A large star-forming region in the constellation Scorpius, covering an area in the night sky slightly larger than the full moon. It is one of the most active star nurseries in the Milky Way. Estimated to be between 24 and 27 parsecs (80 and 90 light years) across. The stars that form by condensation of gas within the nebula heat the surrounding gas which expands to form immense gas bubbles.

At the speed of light (7.5 times around the earth per second), the distance from our star the Sun to its nearest star Alpha Proxima is 4 light years. For comparison, light takes 80-90 years to traverse the Cats Paw nebula, not to mention the ~5,500 years it takes to reach our eyes on earth. So here is the Cats Paw nebula as it was just after the rise of human civilisation.

The nebula harbours numerous young blue giant stars, each nearly ten times the mass of our Sun and born in the last few million years. They emit powerful ultraviolet energy that in turn ionizes surrounding hydrogen (and oxygen) gas, and that produces the glow that is imaged here.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3671643
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 6334 - Cats Paw Nebula in Scorpius

NGC 6334 - Cats Paw Nebula in Scorpius

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 6334 - Cats Paw Nebula in Scorpius

NGC 6334 - Cats Paw Nebula in Scorpius

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information