An Unusual Globule in IC 1396

Is there a monster in IC 1396? Known to some as the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, parts of gas and cosmic 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 cosmic 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.

This incredible scene is a favorite in astrophotography, revealing the dynamic and celestial processes in deep space space clouds.