IC 410, The Tadpoles Nebula in Auriga, lies 10,000 light-years from Earth. The fierce stellar winds emitted by the hot, blue type O and B stars in this nebula have so heavily eroded what were once thick, majestic elephant trunk pillars, similar to the Pillars of Creation in M16, The Eagle Nebula, that they now resemble tadpoles. The globules of the pillars, complete with glowing compressed rims, make up the tadpoles heads. The remnants of the pillars trail behind them, like celestial windsocks in the stellar breeze. For more on these processes, see my article on stellar winds in the August, 2016 issue of Astronomy Magazine.
Image Data:
Telescope/Mount: Celestron Compustar C14 with Astro Physics 0.75x focal reducer.
Camera: SBIG STL 11000M with Baader Planetarium Ha, R, G, and B filters.
Date: 2013-12-08
Exposures: Ha:R:G:B=240:60:60:60 = 7 hours total exposure.