NASA gets into the holiday spirit and shares a cluster of stars that strongly resembles a Christmas tree.
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On its X profile (Twitter), NASA posted impressive images of the star cluster known as NGC 2264, which has since been nicknamed the “Christmas Tree Cluster.”
It’s beginning to look a lot like cosmos. 🎶
Our @ChandraXray Observatory recently spotted the blue-and-white lights that decorate the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” a swarm of stars and gas some 2,500 light-years from Earth: https://t.co/VT2WaLgp77 pic.twitter.com/HrnrmxRyd7
— NASA (@NASA) December 19, 2023
The cluster takes the form of a cosmic tree with the glow of starlight and is composed of many young stars, ranging in age from one to five million years, according to NASA.
In addition to its shape, the colors also contribute to the festive resemblance. According to NASA, optical data from a telescope revealed gas in the nebula represented by thin lines and green shapes, creating the appearance of “branches” resembling a pine tree.
All these tiny stars are in our Milky Way, located about 2,500 light-years from Earth, and they vary in size from smaller to larger than the Sun, ranging from some with less than a tenth of the Sun’s mass to others containing about seven solar masses, NASA stated.
