IC5070 - PELICAN NEBULA

The Pelican Nebula is a large emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus, immediately adjacent to the much better-known North America Nebula (NGC 7000). Lying at a distance of approximately 1,800 light-years from Earth, the Pelican Nebula derives its name from its resemblance to a pelican in profile, complete with a long bill and curved neck visible in wide-field photographs. The nebula is physically part of the same vast cloud of ionized hydrogen as the North America Nebula, with the two regions separated along our line of sight by a foreground molecular cloud known as LDN 935. This dark cloud acts as a natural mask, creating the illusion of two distinct nebulae from what is actually a single enormous HII region. The Pelican Nebula is an active site of star formation, and its most scientifically interesting features are the numerous Herbig-Haro objects and elongated jets found along the boundary between the ionized gas and the dense molecular cloud. These jets are produced by protostars still in the process of accreting material from their surrounding disks. The ionization front where the nebula meets the dark cloud creates a dramatic ridge of bright emission bordered by dark pillars and globules, reminiscent of the pillars found in the Eagle Nebula. This boundary region, sometimes called the Pelican's Neck, is particularly rich in newly forming stars and shows evidence of radiation-driven implosion triggering gravitational collapse. While the Pelican Nebula is faint visually, it is a superb target for narrowband astrophotography, where the interplay of emission and dark nebulosity along the ionization front produces strikingly detailed images.

The nebula spans approximately 25 light-years across and is part of a larger HII region complex at roughly 1,800 light-years distance, sharing its ionizing source with the North America Nebula.