Discover the cosmosEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation:Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story, the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula winds through the emission region and young star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellationof Cepheus.
Also known as vdB 142, this cosmic elephant’s trunk is over 20 light-years long.The detailed telescopicview features the bright swept-back ridges and pockets of coolinterstellardust and gas that abound in the region.
But thedark, tendril-shaped cloudscontain the raw material for star formation and hideprotostars within.
Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faintIC 1396 complexcovers a large region on the sky, spanning over 5 degrees.
Top to bottom this proboscidean-like rendition reaches across an almost 1 degree wide field of view, though.
That’s a little less than the angular size of 2 full moons.
Tomorrow’s picture:pixels in space