The Elephant's Trunk nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constella
The Elephant's Trunk nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus, about 2400 light-years from Earth. It is commonly called the Elephant's Trunk nebula because of its appearance in visible light, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive star (HD 206267). The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star. The Elephant's Trunk nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, containing several very young. Two relatively older stars are present in a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these young stars may have emptied the cavity. This image was created from photographic material taken with the metre Oschin Telescope at Palomar Mountain Observatory, forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Size: 5379px × 6498px
Photo credit: © DAVIDE DE MARTIN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1396, 206267, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, camera, cepheus, cluster, dark, dust, elephant, emission, evolution, hd, hii, ic, nebula, observatory, oschin, palomar, reflection, region, schmidt, space, star, telescope, trunk
