NASA’s latest Astronomy Picture of the Day captures the changing Pelican Nebula
A 25-hour exposure from Utah reveals the gas, dust and star formation shaping IC 5070.
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for 7 September 2026 features a detailed image of the Pelican Nebula, also known as IC 5070.
Photographed from Utah over 25 hours, the image brings out the nebula’s filamentary dust and bright-orange ionisation front. The boundary marks the region where cold gas is being transformed into hot gas.
NASA describes the Pelican Nebula as an active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. Light from young, energetic stars is driving the change, while dense tentacles of cold gas remain visible.
IC 5070 is separated from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud containing dark dust. The Pelican Nebula is bounded by the dark nebula LDN 935.
NASA says the nebula may look substantially different millions of years from now, as the arrangement of its stars and gas changes. The Astronomy Picture of the Day website is also moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod.
