elephant trunk
Appearance
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]elephant trunk (plural elephant trunks)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see elephant, trunk.
- (astronomy) An extended pillar-like mass of interstellar gas and dust found near a massive star.
- 2012, Charles J. Lada, N.D. Kylafis, The Physics of Star Formation and Early Stellar Evolution, page 314:
- However, the behaviour of the molecular emission in elephant trunks and cometary globules clearly indicated the presence of neighbouring massive stars […]