There has been speculation about whether or not there is a monster in IC 1396. It is known as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula and parts of the glowing gas and dust clouds of this star formation region may appear to take on an ominous form, some nearly human. The entire nebula might even look like a face of a monster. It is actually 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 of the image. Jets and winds of particles emitted from this star are also pushing away ambient gas and dust. It is nearly 3,000 light-years distant and the IC 1396 complex is relatively faint and covers a region in 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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