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Stars are forming in the gigantic dust pillar called the Cone Nebula. Cones,
pillars, and majestic
flowing shapes abound in
stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust are buffeted by energetic winds from newborn stars. The
Cone Nebula, a well-known example, lies within the bright galactic star-forming region
NGC 2264. The
Cone was captured in unprecedented detail in
this close-up composite of several observations from the Earth-orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope. While the
Cone Nebula, about 2,500 light-years away
in Monoceros, is around 7 light-years long,
the region pictured here surrounding the cone's blunted head is a mere 2.5 light-years across. In
our neck of the galaxy that distance is just over half way from our Sun to its
nearest stellar neighbors in the
Alpha Centauri star system. The massive star
NGC 2264 IRS, seen by Hubble's infrared camera in 1997, is the likely source of the wind sculpting the Cone Nebula and lies off the top of the image. The
Cone Nebula's reddish veil is produced by glowing hydrogen gas.
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