August 19, 2009
Another birthday means another year in which the universe got to experience itself through your particular combination of wonder and will.
IC 1396 and Surrounding Starfield
Birthday · August 19, 2009
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APOD published August 19, 2009. Credit: Thomas W. Earle. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Sprawling across hundreds of light-years, emission nebula IC 1396, visible on the upper right, mixes glowing cosmic gas and dark dust clouds. Stars are forming in this area, only about 3,000 light-years from Earth. This wide angle view also captures surrounding emission and absorption nebula. The red glow in IC 1396 and across the image is created by cosmic hydrogen gas recapturing electrons knocked away by energetic starlight. The dark dust clouds are dense groups of smoke-like particles common in the disks of spiral galaxies. Among the intriguing dark shapes within IC 1396, the winding Elephant's Trunk nebula lies just right of the nebula's center. IC 1396 lies in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus.
Image credit: Thomas W. Earle