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

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5570
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am

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.

<< Previous APOD This Day in APOD Next APOD >>
[/b]

Boomer12k
:---[===] *
Posts: 2691
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2007 12:07 am

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...

:---[===] *

Guest

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

User avatar
neufer
Vacationer at Tralfamadore
Posts: 18805
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Location: Alexandria, Virginia

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

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13805
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

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.

Ann
Color Commentator

dlw
Ensign
Posts: 89
Joined: Fri Jul 22, 2005 4:43 pm
Location: California

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?
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

User avatar
JohnD
Tea Time, Guv! Cheerio!
Posts: 1587
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 2:11 pm
Location: Lancaster, England

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