The Elephant Trunk Nebula is a photograph by Davide De Martin/science Photo Library which was uploaded on October 16th, 2019.
The Elephant Trunk Nebula
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... more
Title
The Elephant Trunk Nebula
Artist
Davide De Martin/science Photo Library
Medium
Photograph
Description
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 1.22 metre Oschin Telescope at Palomar Mountain Observatory, forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Uploaded
October 16th, 2019
More from Davide De Martin/science Photo Library
Comments
There are no comments for The Elephant Trunk Nebula. Click here to post the first comment.