            APOD: 2018 January 16 - An Elephant s Trunk in Cepheus

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 January 16
                                      [2]
                        An Elephant's Trunk in Cepheus
    Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Processing - Robert Gendler [4] , Roberto
                                Colombari [5]
      Data - Subaru Telescope (NAOJ) [6] , Robert Gendler, Adam Block [7]

Explanation: With image data [8]  from telescopes large and small, this
close-up features the dusty Elephant's Trunk Nebula. It winds through the
emission nebula and young star cluster complex IC 1396 [9] , in the high and
far off [10] constellation of Cepheus. Also known as vdB 142, the cosmic
elephant's trunk is over 20 light-years long. The colorful view highlights
bright, swept-back ridges that outline the region's pockets of cool
interstellar dust and gas. Such embedded, dark, tendril-shaped [11]  clouds
contain the raw material for star formation and hide protostars within [12] .
Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396 complex covers
a large region on the sky, spanning over 5 degrees. This dramatic scene spans
a 1 degree wide field, about the size of 2 Full Moons.

                      Tomorrow's picture: orion away [13]

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1801/VDB142-ESO-L.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/
  [5] https://www.facebook.com/roberto.colombari
  [6] http://www.naoj.org
  [7] http://adamblockphotos.com
  [8] http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/VDB142-ESO.html
  [9] ap050908.html
  [10] http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/
  [11] ap070218.html
  [12] http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/
1058-ssc2003-06b-Dark-Globule-in-IC-1396
  [13] ap180117.html
  [14] ap180115.html
  [15] archivepix.html
  [16] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [17] lib/aptree.html
  [18] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [19] calendar/allyears.html
  [20] /apod.rss
  [21] lib/edlinks.html
  [22] lib/about_apod.html
  [23] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180116
  [24] ap180117.html
  [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [26] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [27] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [28] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [29] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [31] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
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  [34] http://www.mtu.edu/
