This ghostly image shows what can happen when an interstellar cloud passes too close to a star. Barnard’s Merope Nebula, also known as IC 349, is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust traveling through the Pleiades star cluster at a relative speed of 11 kilometers per second. It is passing close to the star Merope, located 0.06 light years away from the cloud, which is equivalent to about 3,500 times the distance between the Earth and the sun. This passage is disrupting the nebula and creating the wispy effect seen in the image.
Click here for original story, Image: A ghost in the Pleiades
Source: Phys.org