June 28, 2006
Even the most precise clock in the world cannot measure how unlikely your existence really is.
The Cat's Paw Nebula
Birthday · June 28, 2006
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
Free PNG · 1080 × 1350 · No account needed
Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.
Date & occasion only
Change the year
APOD published June 28, 2006. Credit: Robert Gendler & Martin Pugh. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Nebulae are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as 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. This deep wide-field image of the Cat's Paw nebula was photographed from New South Wales, Australia.
Image credit: Robert Gendler & Martin Pugh