PIX4619391: Nebulae NGC 6334 and NGC 6357 in Scorpio - Nebulae NGC 6334 and NGC 6357 in Scorpius: These nebulae are located about 5500 light years from Earth - Located in the constellation of Scorpius, the Cat's Paw Nebula resemble a faint, luminous paw-print on the sky. Deep images reveal that the nebula is about a degree across in the sky. At a distance of about 5500 light-years away it is a truly vast structure spanning almost 100 light-years across. The sculpted gases of NGC 6334 are illuminated by the light of numerous powerful stars, some exceeding 10 solar masses. The two brilliant blue stars in the upper left are Lambda and Kappa Scorpii. Many of these luminous hot stars are surprisingly not visible because they lie within the dusty plane of our galaxy. At infrared wavelengths the numerous hot stars are revealed and the nature of this object as a region of massive star formation becomes clear. In the past decade water masers, molecular outflows, and x-ray sources have provided direct evidence of clusters of protostars within NGC 6334. The nebula was discovered by John Herschel in 1837, and the brief and uninformative description in his Cape Observations catalog is a testament to its faintness. The ruddy hue of this complex is the result of the absorption of blue light by the ubiquitous dust clouds along our line of sight in the plane of the Milky Way. The red, intricate bubble making up the left paw print is particularly striking and is most likely either a star expelling large amounts of matter at high speed as it nears the end of its life or the remnant of a recent supernova - Located near the famous “” Cat Paw”” nebula (NGC 6334), the Stellar Cluster Pismis 24 lies at the core of NGC 6357. Its stars include some of the most massive stellar behemoths known. One of the brightest stars in the cluster, Pismis 24-1, was thought possibly to be the most massive on record, approaching 300 solar masses, until it was discovered by the Hubble Telescope to b / Bridgeman Images
PIX4619800: Nebula NGC 6559 in Sagittarius - NGC 6559 and IC 1274 - 75 in Sagittarius - Located in Sagittarius, this nebula is located at a distance of about 5000 years - light from Earth. Image made with the 1.2m Telescope of Schmidt UK from Siding Spring. This dusty region is probably associated with the brighter and better - known Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae which are nearby in the sky and part of the same molecular cloud. The soft red glow of fluorescent hydrogen is evidence that there are young hot stars associated with the dusty clouds. These bright stars also illuminate the tiny solid particles, producing blue reflection nebulae bordering some of the emission regions. The dust is also evident in silhouette, both as sinuous dark lanes winding through the luminous gas and as the dark patches obscuring the ancient, yellow stars that populate the central parts of the Milky Way / Bridgeman Images
PIX4619532: Trifide nebula (M20) in the constellation Sagittarius: View of the Trifide nebula (M20/NGC 6514) located in the constellation Sagittarius between 5000 and 10,000 light years from Earth. Measuring some forty light years across, this nebula contains enough gas to make many thousands of suns. Trifid is located in Sagittarius constellation between 5000 and 10,000 light-years away / Bridgeman Images