light years long. Astronomers have made observations suggesting that the Pillars were possibly destroyed by the shock waves of a supernova 6,000 years ago. Rosette Nebula The Rosette Nebula is an example of an unusual shape that an elephant trunk can assume. It has a double helix structure instead of the normal straight column. The double helix is caused by the presence of magnetic fields and electric currents lined up along the trunk axis of the trunks. This makes the filaments of the columns wavy instead of straight, as they are in normal trunks. These filaments wrap around each other rather than line up next to each other, which forms the twisted structure. NGC 7822 The star forming complex NGC 7822 in the constellation of Cepheus has several elephant trunk formations. References Interstellar media