Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  IC 1396
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Elephant's Trunk Nebula - 9/1/2011, AstroPoverty
Elephant's Trunk Nebula - 9/1/2011
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Elephant's Trunk Nebula - 9/1/2011

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Elephant's Trunk Nebula - 9/1/2011, AstroPoverty
Elephant's Trunk Nebula - 9/1/2011
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Elephant's Trunk Nebula - 9/1/2011

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Description

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is just a small part of a massive complex IC1396. The elephant's head can be spotted at the top of the long nebulous structure in the middle of the image. This central nebula is over 20 light years in length (117,573,371,500,000 miles). This image is taken using NASA's Hubble Palette so that different types of gasses (Hydrogen, Oxygen and Sulfur) can be identified more readily. The dark areas in the image are nothing more than massive collections of dust. The glowing light apparent around the edges of the central nebula is created by a nearby massive star that ionizes the gas. Most astronomers believe that this region is actively creating new stars (and already has several young stars less than 100,000 years old).

The Elephant's Trunk nebula is located in the constellation Cepheus some 2,400 light years distant.

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Elephant's Trunk Nebula - 9/1/2011, AstroPoverty