Elephant's Trunk Nebula
The Elephant's Trunk Nebula, designated IC 1396A, is a dense, elongated region of interstellar gas and dust within the larger IC 1396 emission nebula in the constellation Cepheus. Shaped by stellar winds and radiation from nearby massive stars, it is an active site of star formation.
Source: noirlab.edu
APODs including "Elephant's Trunk Nebula"
An Unusual Globule in IC 1396
12/12/2022
Is there a monster in IC 1396? Known to some as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, parts of gas and dust clouds of this star formation region may appear to take on foreboding forms, some nearly human. The only real monster here, however, is a bright young star too far from Earth to hurt us. Energetic light from this star is eating away the dust of the dark cometary globule near the top of the featured image. Jets and winds of particles emitted from this star are also pushing away ambient gas and dust. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396 complex covers a much larger region on the sky than shown here, with an apparent width of more than 10 full moons.