Window on Infinity: Pictures from Space
A comet closes in for a Holiday rendezvous with Earth, while new stars are born in the Elephant Trunk Nebula, and the coldest place in the universe shows its face. In other words, just another month in space.
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center / NASA / CXC / SAO
When radiation and winds from massive young stars collide with clouds of cool gas, they can trigger new generations of stars to form. This is what may be happening in this object known informally as the Elephant Trunk Nebula—and formally as IC 1396A. Located 2,400 light years from Earth, the nebula is a relative newcomer to astronomy texts, discovered in 2003.
