Starship Asterisk*

Monsters of IC 1396

Explanation: Is there a monster in IC 1396? Known to some as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, parts of the glowing gas and dust clouds of this star formation region may appear to take on foreboding forms, some nearly human. The entire nebula might even look like a face of a monster. The only real monster here, however, is a bright young star too far from Earth to be dangerous. Energetic light from this star is eating away the dust of the dark cometary globule at the top right the image. Jets and winds of particles emitted from this star are also pushing away ambient gas and dust. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the IC 1396 complex is relatively faint and covers a region on the sky with an apparent width of more than 10 full moons. Recently, over 100 young stars have been discovered forming in the nebula.

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This is a good-looking portrait of IC 1396, where the "elephant trunk", a "pillar" of the same kind that were so memorably shown by Hubble in the Eagle Nebula, is dramatically outlined in gold. It does resemble a Nessie of some sort.

Since today's APOD rather plays "down" the hot O-type star ionizing the nebula and making its "Nessie" stand out, I thought I'd post a picture where the hot central star is much more obvious.
Ann

It doesn't look like a monster; it looks like a fluffy dog.....

I like the ideas of fluffy dogs in space.

----
Sam

Ann wrote: I thought I'd post a picture

And in living color!

Thank you, Ann.

-Noel

HarrySevenEagles wrote:It doesn't look like a monster; it looks like a fluffy dog.....

I like the ideas of fluffy dogs in space.

How about BARF?

BMAONE23 wrote:

HarrySevenEagles wrote:
It doesn't look like a monster; it looks like a fluffy dog.....

I like the ideas of fluffy dogs in space.

How about BARF?

Minister: What's your name?

Barf: Barf.

Minister: Your full name?

Barf: Barf-olemew! I'm a mog: half man, half dog. I'm my own best friend!

"Monsters! Monsters from the IC!!"

/presses planet-destroying plunger, dies

....or maybe it's Donald Trump.