The Flaming Star, Tadpole, and Spider Nebulae

Three star-forming regions in the constellation Auriga, framed in a single wide-field exposure but at three very different distances along the same line of sight. The Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405, about 1,500 light-years away) glows around AE Aurigae — a runaway star ejected from the Orion region roughly 2.5 million years ago, currently passing through a cloud it has no connection to and ionizing it on the way. Eight thousand light-years deeper sits the Tadpole Nebula (IC 410), named for the two dense pillars of cooler gas surviving the radiation pressure of the embedded cluster NGC 1893 carving out its center. Further still is the Spider Nebula (IC 417, ~10,000 light-years), a smaller emission cloud cradling its own embedded cluster, NGC 1931. Three independent nurseries at three different stages of stellar life, captured together in eight hours of exposure across an eight-degree-wide patch of sky.