NGC 6357 - The Lobster Nebula

If you’re into deep space wonders, NGC 6357 is a nebula you need to check out. Often called the “Lobster Nebula”, this massive star-forming region sits about 8,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. And it’s not just beautiful—it’s busy.

Right at the heart of NGC 6357 is a stellar nursery known as Pismis 24, a young star cluster packed with some truly massive stars. over 100 times the mass of our Sun, approaching the theoretical upper limit of around 150 solar masses (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007ApJ...660.1480M/abstract). Despite their size and brilliance, these stars have surprisingly short lifespans. While our Sun will burn for about 10 billion years, these massive stars are expected to last only around 10 million years before ending their lives in powerful supernova explosions.

What makes Pismis 24 especially interesting is that it once seemed to contain one of the most massive stars ever discovered—until we looked closer and realized it was actually multiple stars tightly packed together.

Also found a small planetary nebula hiding in the background. More details at https://aladin.cds.unistra.fr/AladinLite/?target=17%2028%2026.400-35%2007%2048.00&fov=0.60&survey=CDS%2FP%2FDECaPS%2FDR2%2Fcolor 

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