A group of UAE astronomers recently captured a breathtaking view of the cat paw nebula, a glowing cloud of gas that appears even bigger than the full Moon in the night sky. They spent nearly 10 hours under the clear desert skies of Abu Dhabi to photograph the nebula’s vivid colors of red hydrogen and blue oxygen gas.
The cat paw nebula lies in the Scorpius constellation and gets its name from its paw-like shape. It sits about 5,500 light-years from Earth and is part of the massive star-forming region NGC 6334. Despite its distance, the nebula larger than Moon stands out as a striking feature for night-sky observers in the UAE and beyond.
This project was led by the Al-Khatim Astronomical Observatory team—Osama Ghanam, Anas Mohammed, and Khalfan Al Nuaimi—with Mohammed Odeh and Haitham Hamdi managing the imaging and post-processing. They captured 195 frames using two telescopes fitted with light-pollution filters. The final image, created from nearly 10 hours of exposure, shows detailed red “pads” and a soft blue glow where oxygen gas is most concentrated.
Nebula Larger Than Moon Stuns UAE Skywatchers
The nebula larger than Moon stretches around 50 light-years across, and the light reaching Earth today left the nebula about 4,370 years ago. The team faced challenges, including low elevation (just 30 degrees above the horizon) and Bortle 6 skies, which caused moderate interference from light pollution.
They used a color camera and specialized filters to minimize haze and background noise. The resulting image strongly resembles the rosette nebula, known for its flower-like structure, though this is a different object entirely.
Thanks to the hard work of the UAE astronomers, stargazers now get a rare chance to see the cat paw nebula clearly. It’s a striking cosmic sight that appears even bigger and brighter than the Moon. Their passion for astronomy brings the wonders of space closer to us. They’re capturing the universe’s beauty one nebula at a time.
