page_title: Elephant's Trunk Nebula
hierarchical_section_title: Elephant's Trunk Nebula
caption_attribution_description: English: Elephant Trunk Nebula captured in Hydrogen Alpha and in Oxygen
context_page_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 2,400 light years away from Earth. The
  piece of the nebula shown here is the dark, dense globule IC 1396A; it is commonly
  called the Elephant's Trunk nebula because of its appearance at visible light wavelengths,
  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 that
  is just to the east of IC 1396A. The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star,
  except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet
  rays.
  The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation,
  containing several very young stars that were discovered
  in infrared images in 2003. Two 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.
  The combined action of the light from the massive star ionizing and compressing
context_section_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 2,400 light years away from Earth. The 
  piece of the nebula shown here is the dark, dense globule IC 1396A; it is commonly
  called the Elephant's Trunk nebula because of its appearance at visible light wavelengths,
  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) that
  is just to the east of IC 1396A. (In the Spitzer Space Telescope view shown, the massive star is just to the left 
  of the edge of the image.) The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star,
  except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet
  rays.
  The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, 
  containing several very young (less than 100,000 yr) stars that were discovered 
  in infrared images in 2003. Two older (but still young, a couple of million years,
  by the standards of stars, which live for billions of years) stars are present in
  a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these young stars 
  may have emptied the cavity.
  The combined action of the light from the massive star ionizing and compressing
  the rim of the cloud, and the wind from the young stars shifting gas from the center
  outward lead to very high compression in the Elephant's Trunk Nebula. This pressure
  has triggered the current generation of protostars.
caption: Elephant Trunk Nebula captured in Hydrogen Alpha and in Oxygen
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