The Pelican Nebula
With the Pelican Nebula, we are revisiting a nearby star-forming region in our galaxy. The predominant pink colour reveals again the telltale presence of energetic hydrogen gas that eventually coalesces under gravity into stars. However, there are also colder dark and opaque regions clearly defined in this complex image.
In the close-up photo, we see fantastic long tendrils of colder gas sculpted by energetic radiation from a nearby protostar. To help understand how this happens, consider how long icicles are formed on a rooftop by warm sunlight and gravity in winter.
The Pelican Nebula reveals the complexity of star formation, from cold and dark gas clouds to hot young protostars, but, at 2,000 light years, the size, distance and timescale remain challenging for us to grasp.
I photographed the Pelican Nebula from my garden in Strasbourg France. This is an ensemble of 119 photos where each was a 3-minute exposure using a hydrogen-enhance filter. I combined 54 photos from July 2025 with 65 photos from August 2024.
