APOD: 2022 October 11 - Stars, Dust, Pillars, and Jets in the Pelican Nebula

Good morning, Rallypoint, and welcome to the October 11th edition of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD): "Stars, Dust, Pillars, and Jets in the Pelican Nebula." The Pelican Nebula (IC 5067 and IC 5070) lies in the constellation Cygnus (The Swan) some 2,000 light years from Earth. The nebula itself is comprised primarily of hydrogen and helium. This image has been enhanced to highlight areas where sulfur and oxygen are present, detected by the wavelength of light that is being emitted.

Pillars are present throughout this close-up view. Some of them appear to contain evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs), and some of the EGGs (like the one on the right, aka Herbig-Haro HH-555) exhibit jets of ionized material that mark the axis of rotation of an embedded star.

If you are curious how the "Hubble palette" of colors is derived for images such as this one, the APOD link "scientifically-colored" takes you to a second page that explains the process.