NASA · Ruimte

APOD: The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 7, 2026, features the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070), highlighting its transformation through star formation and evolving gas clouds.

The Pelican Nebula is undergoing a slow transformation, separated from the North America Nebula by a dark molecular cloud. This image, with 25 hours of exposure, reveals intricate details of the filamentary dust. The nebula is a subject of study due to its active mix of star formation and gas evolution. Young stars are converting cold gas to hot gas, with an ionization front visible as bright orange on the upper right. Dense tentacles of cold gas persist. In millions of years, the Pelican Nebula, bordered by dark nebula LDN 935, may appear entirely different due to changes in the balance and placement of stars and gas.

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