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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.

The Pelican Nebula is a region of hot-energized hydrogen near the bright star Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus. In this photo, the Pelican Nebula is at the centre, with the neighboring “North American Nebula” above it. It is nearby in the Milky Way Galaxy, at a distance of only 1,800 light years.

The Pelican Nebula has a very intense star-formation core, and it is the focus of serious attention from researchers. This caldron of hot hydrogen is so intense, it is dispersing the adjacent gas and dust in violent stellar winds, forming an “ionization front”. Look closely at this ionization front, and you see long and dark structures called “Herbig-Haro jets”, resulting from this powerful shockwave.

I photographed the Pelican Nebula from my garden in Strasbourg France on a single night in August 2024. This is an ensemble of 80 photographs, where each photo was a 3 minute exposure (4 hours of astrophotography).

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