IC1396A - Elephant Trunk Nebula 17 viewsA narrowband (Hubble Palette) image of a dense cloud of gas and dust within a much larger region of ionized gas designated IC1396, illuminated and ionized by the massive bright star HD206267 at the upper right corner of the frame. I don't find that the shape of the nebula resembles an elephant's trunk, but rather, as Michelle Evans has suggested, a dragon named Verminthrax Pejorative from the movie Dragonslayer.
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IC4592 - Blue Horsehead Nebula 11 viewsReflection nebula in the constellation Scorpius, lit by the giant septuple star Jabbah (Nu Scorpii). This photo shows only part of the nebula, so the horsehead shape is not evident here.
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IC4603 - Core of the Rho Ophiuchi Complex11 viewsThis blue reflection nebula glows by the light of the 7.9 magnitude star SAO184376 in the center.
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IC 4604 - Rho Ophiuchi Nebula 11 viewsA blue reflection nebula in Ophiuchus, illuminated by three bright stars of which the central and brightest is Rho Ophiuchi. Lying along the border of Ophiuchus and Scorpius, this nebula and its neighbor IC4603 are close to the giant red star Antares.
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NGC2237 - The Rosette Nebula11 viewsEmission Nebula / HII region in Monoceros, with open cluster NGC 2244 in center of nebula.
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Sharpless 2-171, The Teddy Bear Nebula in Cepheus9 viewsAn emission nebula, part of a larger nebula designated NGC 7822, about 2900 light years away.
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NGC 1977, The Running Man Nebula in Orion10 viewsA reflection nebula embedded in a bright HII region, Sh2-171, found in Orion's Sword near the Great Orion Nebula M42. Sh2-171 also includes two other nebulae and the star cluster NGC-1981.
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Sharpless 2-155 - The Cave Nebula15 viewsA narrowband (Hubble Palette) view of an emission nebula in Cepheus; part of an ionized HII region within a larger complex containing emission, reflection and dark nebulae. About 2400 light-years away, on the edge of the Cepheus molecular cloud.
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The Horsehead Nebula in Orion10 viewsThe Horsehead Nebula, Barnard 33, is a dark nebula, silhouetted against the bright emission nebula IC 434. The large blue object to the left of IC 434 is a reflection nebula, NGC 2023. They are all found near the star Alnitak, the easternmost star in Orion's belt, which is off the frame to the right, and are 1400 light-years from Earth.
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NGC 7023 - the Iris Nebula in Cepheus10 viewsA bright reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus, about 1300 light-years away. Actually NGC 7023 is the star cluster inside the nebula, which is properly designated LBN 487.
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NGC 2359 - Thor's Helmet13 viewsAn emission nebula in the constellation Canis Major; about 12,000 light-years away. Consists largely of interstellar gas swept up by the central star, and partly of material from the star itself, which is an extremely hot, massive Wolf-Rayet star in a short-lived pre-supernova stage.
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Medusa Nebula (Sharpless 2-274)12 viewsPlanetary Nebula in Gemini. Discovered in 1955, first thought to be a supernova remnant, but Soviet astronomers in 1971 determined it to be a planetary nebula.
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