Suggested Searches

 

1 min read

Zoom into the Cat’s Paw Nebula

This zoom-in video shows the location of the Cat’s Paw Nebula on the sky. It begins with a ground-based photo by the late astrophotographer Akira Fujii, then shows views from the Digitized Sky Survey. The video then hones in on a select portion of the sky to reveal a European Southern Observatory image of the Cat’s Paw Nebula in visible light. The video continues to zoom in on a section of the Cat’s Paw, which gradually transitions to the stunning image captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared light.

  • Release Date
    July 10, 2025
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Scratches Beyond Surface of Cat’s Paw for 3rd Anniversary
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI); Acknowledgment: VISTA, DSS, Akira Fujii

Downloads

  • Video: 3840 × 2160, 60 FPS
    mp4 (79.45 MB)
  • Video: 1920 × 1080, 60 FPS
    mp4 (31.18 MB)
  • Audio Description
    mp4 (54.48 MB)
  • Audio Description
    mp3 (321.02 KB)
  • Audio Description
    doc (20.26 KB)
  • Captions
    srt (937 B)
  • Captions
    vtt (1.17 KB)
  • Image: Poster Image, 1280 × 720
    png (2.39 MB)
  • Transcript
    doc (20.1 KB)
  • Transcript
    txt (505 B)

Related Images & Videos

A section of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, a local star-forming region composed of gas, dust, and young stars. Four roughly circular areas are toward the center of the frame: a small oval toward the top left, a large circle in the top center, and two ovals at bottom left and right. Each circular area has a luminous blue glow, with the top center and bottom left areas the brightest. Brown-orange filaments of dust, which vary in density, surround these four bluish patches and stretch toward the frame’s edges. Small zones, such as to the left and right of the top-center blue circular area, appear darker and seemingly vacant of stars. Toward the center are small, fiery red clumps scattered among the brown dust. Many small, yellow-white stars are spread across the scene, some with eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of Webb. A few larger blue-white stars with diffraction spikes are scattered throughout, mostly toward the top left and bottom right. In the top right corner is a bright red-orange oval.

Cat's Paw Nebula (NIRCam Image)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared view of the Cat’s Paw Nebula reveals mini “toe beans.” Massive young stars are carving the gas and dust while their bright starlight is producing a bright nebulous glow. Eventually this turbulent region will quench star formation.

Image titled “James Webb Space Telescope; Cat’s Paw Nebula; NGC 6334,” with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key. This portion of the star-forming region contains four roughly circular areas composed of gas, dust, and young stars. Each circular area has a luminous blue glow. Many small, yellow-white stars are spread across the scene, and a few larger blue-white stars are scattered throughout. At the bottom left is a scale bar labeled 1.6 light-years. The length of the scale bar is about one sixth of the total image. At the bottom right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The east arrow points toward 12 o’clock. The north arrow points in the 3 o’clock direction. Below the image is a color key showing which NIRCam filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter. From left to right: F090W is blue, F187N is cyan, F200W is green, F277W is yellow, F335M is orange, and F470N is red.

Cat's Paw (NIRCam) Compass Image

This image of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's near-infrared image of a portion of the Cat's Paw Nebula. White text at center reads "Cosmic Caverns in the Cat's Paw Nebula."

Cosmic Caverns in the Cat's Paw Nebula

This visualization explores a subset of toe bean-reminiscent structures within a section of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, a massive, local star-forming region located approximately 4,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. This image by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in...

White text in the center reads "Cosmic Caverns in the Cat's Paw Nebula." A tall, narrow portion of the Cat's Paw Nebula is in the background.

Cosmic Caverns in the Cat's Paw Nebula (Video Short)

This visualization explores a subset of toe bean-reminiscent structures within a section of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, a massive, local star-forming region located approximately 4,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. This image by the James Webb Space Telescope in...

Share

Details

Last Updated
Sep 04, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Video Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI)

Acknowledgment Credit

VISTA, DSS, Akira Fujii

Related Terms

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

Space Telescope

Science Overview

Webb Observatory

Webb Image Galleries