The Elephant’s Trunk
Formally IC1396, this cloud of interstellar gas and dust is thought to be an active site of new star formation. And with a little imagination, it kind of looks like an elephant’s trunk. There’s more to it than you see here, but I tried to get an interesting framing.
From this angle we see a Moose’s head more so than an Elephant’s trunk. It’s all just random clouds of gas, but it’s fun to let your imagination run with it.
This is about 2,400 light-years away from Earth. The light captured by this photographed left the nebula during the time of ancient Rome here on Earth.
This is a “narrowband” image taken through filters that show specific kinds of ionized gas, and processed using false colors in three different ways. The redder image is closest to what it “really” looks like.
