Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)
IC 1396A  Elephant Trunk Nebula, Greg Allegretti
IC 1396A  Elephant Trunk Nebula
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IC 1396A Elephant Trunk Nebula

IC 1396A  Elephant Trunk Nebula, Greg Allegretti
IC 1396A  Elephant Trunk Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

IC 1396A Elephant Trunk Nebula

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Description

Up in Smoke...

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a dense region of gas and dust seen in silhouette against a larger emission nebula. At the top of this object is a “globule” - a sphere of compressed material where star formation is actively proceeding. At the center of this body can be seen a pair of newborn stars whose stellar wind has cleared a small region within the globule. Also seen inside this clearing is a tiny emission nebula.

A blazing blue star above the elephant’s trunk (outside this image) is also blowing its own storm of stellar wind. This hurricane has torn material from the globule which is seen streaming toward the lower part of the image. This same stellar wind is inducing the leading edge of the globule to glow.

The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula lies 2,500 light years distant in the direction of the constellation of Cepheus, the king.

This image was captured under high desert skies near Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA with a telescope of 12" aperture at f/4.5 and an electrically-cooled CCD camera. This tri-colored image was taken through hydrogen-alpha (green), oxygen-III (blue), and Sulfur-II (red) filters.

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IC 1396A  Elephant Trunk Nebula, Greg Allegretti