elephant trunk

English

Noun

elephant trunk (plural elephant trunks)

  1. Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see elephant,‎ trunk.
  2. (astronomy) An extended pillar-like mass of interstellar gas and dust found near a massive star.
    • 2012, Charles J. Lada and ‎N.D. Kylafis, The Physics of Star Formation and Early Stellar Evolution, p. 314:
      However, the behaviour of the molecular emission in elephant trunks and cometary globules clearly indicated the presence of neighbouring massive stars […]
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