NASA has released a detailed image of the Pelican Nebula, IC 5070, revealing its ongoing transformation through star formation and evolving gas clouds. The image, captured from Utah, USA, incorporates 25 hours of exposure to highlight the nebula's filamentary dust structures.
The Pelican Nebula is slowly changing, and is separated from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The new image showcases an "ionization front" – the boundary between cold and hot gas – visible as bright orange on the upper right. Dense tentacles of cold gas also remain within the nebula.
NASA explains the Pelican Nebula is a particularly active area of star formation. Light from young, energetic stars is gradually converting cold gas into hot gas. Millions of years in the future, the nebula, bounded by dark nebula LDN 935, will likely appear drastically different due to shifts in the balance and placement of stars and gas.
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