The star Merope lies just off the upper left edge of this picture of the cloud IC 349. In the past 100,000 years, part of the cloud has by chance moved too close to the. Pressure of the star's light significantly repels the dust in the reflection nebula with smaller dust particles being repelled more strongly. Eventually parts of the dust cloud have become stratified and point toward Merope, with the closest particles being the most massive and so the least affected by the radiation pressure.
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