APOD: NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula (2017 Sep 13)

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APOD: NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula (2017 Sep 13)

Post by APOD Robot » Wed Sep 13, 2017 4:06 am

Image NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula

Explanation: Nebulas are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat's Paw Nebula visible in Scorpius. At 5,500 light years distant, Cat's Paw is an emission nebula with a red color that originates from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms. Alternatively known as the Bear Claw Nebula or NGC 6334, stars nearly ten times the mass of our Sun have been born there in only the past few million years. Pictured here is a deep field image of the Cat's Paw Nebula in light emitted by hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur.

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Re: APOD: NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula (2017 Sep 13)

Post by Boomer12k » Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:03 am

Or "the big, puffy, DOLL-thingy Nebula"....really nice...

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Re: APOD: NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula (2017 Sep 13)

Post by Guest » Wed Sep 13, 2017 6:13 am

this should be the one that's called the "heart nebula" :-D

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Papa's polydactyl pussycats persevere

Post by neufer » Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:38 am

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/09/11/hemingways-six-toed-cats-survive-irma-still-have-nine-lives/?utm_term=.8088cd4d411a wrote: Hemingway's six-toed cats survive Irma, still have nine lives
by Karin Brulliard, Washington Post, September 11

<<As day broke Monday, authorities were only beginning to assess the damage Hurricane Irma's brute force wrought on the delicate archipelago that is the Florida Keys.

But it became clear that one beloved tourist attraction had survived the storm unscathed: the colony of six-toed cats that resides at the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum on Key West.

All 54 cats — and the 10 humans who hunkered down with them in the Spanish Colonial house the author called home in the 1930s — rode out the gusts with aplomb, curator David Gonzales told MSNBC Sunday night, after the worst of the storm had passed.

Some of the cats descended from Snow White, a six-toed white feline given to Hemingway by a ship's captain, according to the museum. Cats typically have five digits on their front paws and four on the rear.>>
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula (2017 Sep 13)

Post by Ann » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:22 pm

Thanks for posting that, Art! How incredibly cute! :D :kitty: :D

I met a five-toed kitten in a shelter myself recently, although I've never seen a six-toed one.

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Re: APOD: NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula (2017 Sep 13)

Post by dlw » Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:43 pm

The "teddy bear"-like object above and just right of center has a very interesting texture (and 2 "ears"). Is it known what causes this unusual appearance?
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Teddy bear in NGC 6334.png
Teddy bear in NGC 6334.png (182.98 KiB) Viewed 3811 times

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Re: APOD: NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula (2017 Sep 13)

Post by JohnD » Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:41 pm

Cat's paw? Bears paw? Astronomers clearly are neither pet owners or wild trackers.

Cats always show four pads, and bears show five, complete with claw tips.
You have to go back to ornithopod dinosaurs for a three toed footprint that isn't a bird's!
And of course "ornithopod" means 'birdfooted'.

John

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