Elephant's Trunk Nebula

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula spans 100 light-years. At the end of the “elephant trunk” that gives the nebula its name is a star called HR 8281. The star may not look like much, but HR8281's powerful stellar wind is what's sculpting the huge cloud of dust.

The “trunk” itself is about 30 light-years long. Structures like this are common in nebulae. They are formed when the stellar wind – the outpouring of ultraviolet radiation and charged particles that are constantly streaming off stars – blows away the gas and dust near a star, leaving only the densest areas. It's basically erosion on a massive interstellar scale.

It's not just a destructive process, though. Within those dense areas new stars can form. In the bright tip of the trunk a small dark spot can be seen. It is an area cleared by the creation of a new star. When a baby star “ignites” and its nuclear fusion factory turns on, its stellar wind clears away the dust and gas in the cloud it was formed from.