COSMIC TADPOLES: The star forming region IC410, situated in the direction of the constellation of Auriga, has a size of some 100 light years, and is at a distance of some 12,000 light years from Earth. The photograph shown here is centred on the zone known as the tadpoles, due to its resemblance to the young phase of development of amphibians. These regions are the cooler remnants of a large cloud of gas which has been carved away by the radiation of the stars in a nearby cluster situated to the upper right. The characteristic tails of the tadpoles are regions of gas which are denser than their surroundings, and which resist the pressure of the wind and the stellar radiation of the star cluster. The tadpoles are regions of star formation and have sizes of around 10 light years. The image, taken with the IAC80 telescope at the Teide Observatory, was taken by combining narrow band filters which pass emission respectively from ionized hydrogen, doubly ionized oxygen, and ionized nitrogen, in order to resolve the more subtle details of these ionized regions which glow with their own light due to the energy received from the star cluster.