Space Time
Also known as NGC 6357, War and Peace Nebula.
One record per aspect. The origin says what kind of thing each value is; the source says where it came from; the limit says what it cannot tell you.
Lobster Nebula image-field center is placed at J2000 RA 17.4 h, Dec -34.3° in Scorpius, at an adopted distance of 8,000 light-years.
Lobster Nebula (star-forming emission nebula; central source Lobster Nebula, embedded stellar population): projected footprint at the adopted distance 211.6 × 211.6 light-years; outer radius used for arrival 105.8 light-years.
The wide VISTA near-infrared field shows NGC 6357 and many projected foreground and background stars. Individual stellar depths are not measured by this image. Projected structure follows the credited observation at its published angular scale and an approximate adopted distance. Shallow depth is illustrative, not measured tomography. The source palette is preserved; brightness is adjusted for the navigable view.