July 3, 2000
Long before your first heartbeat, stars were busy forging the elements you would one day call your own.
Pelican Nebula Ionization Front
Birthday · July 3, 2000
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APOD published July 3, 2000. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed. IC 5070, the official designation, is divided from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The Pelican, however, receives much study because it is a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The above picture was produced in two specific colors to better understand these interactions. Here, hot hydrogen gas glows in red, while cooler Sulfur glows blue-green. The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming the cold gas to hot gas, with the advancing boundary between the two known as an ionization front. Particularly dense filaments of cold gas are seen to still remain. Millions of years from now this nebula might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars and gas will leave something that appears completely different.