Elephant Trunk nebula (IC 1396A). This is a starbirth region, a huge cloud of gas and dust in which stars form. A dark band of gas and dust runs acros

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Elephant Trunk nebula (IC 1396A). This is a starbirth region, a huge cloud of gas and dust in which stars form. A dark band of gas and dust runs across centre. Its lower edge is glowing pink as the hydrogen gas there is ionised by radiation from a hot young star below it. The radiation from this star compacts the gas and dust, a process known as radiation driven implosion. This in turn leads to the formation of more stars within the dense globules the process forms. This nebula lies around 2400 light years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus.

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Size: 3946px × 2661px
Photo credit: © ROBERT GENDLER & JIM MISTI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1396, 1396a, 142, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, birth, cepheus, dust, dusty, elephant, emission, evolution, formation, globule, globules, glowing, hii, ic, nebula, region, space, star, starbirth, stellar, telescope, trunk, vdb