A stunning new image of the Cat's Paw Nebula reveals a region at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy where new stars are being born at a furious pace.
The nebula, a cloud of interstellar gas and dust, is a cosmic nursery where new stars are ushered into being as these materials mix and condense.
Also known as NGC 6334, the Cat's Paw is thought to hold several tens of thousands of stars. Among them are freshly minted, brilliant blue stars — each nearly 10 times the mass of our sun and born within the last few million years.
"NGC 6334 is one of the most active nurseries of massive stars in our galaxy," researchers said in a European Southern Observatory statement.
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