The Cat’s Paw — A Diffuse Nebula

The Cat’s Paw Nebula is a so-called emission nebula located 5500 light-years away toward the constellation of Scorpius (the Scorpion). Skywatchers can observe the Cat’s Paw Nebula near the tip of the Scorpion’s tail in the southern region of the constellation.

The nebula’s glamorous red colours originate from the blazing new stars, some of them ten times more massive than our Sun, which have been born there in the past few million years. Sheltered beneath massive clouds, these stars illuminate and heat-up the surrounding gas, making it glow red in the signature colour of hydrogen.

Sir John Herschel, an English mathematician and astronomer, discovered the Cat’s Paw Nebula on 7 June 1837, while observing it from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. He denoted it as the entry “h 3678” in his catalogue published in 1847. It became GC 4288 in his General Catalogue published in 1864, and it later became NGC 6334 in the New General Catalogue.