NASA released an image from the Milky Way of a star cluster resembling a Christmas tree mere days away from Christmas Day.
The photo of NGC 2264 has been given the name “Christmas Tree cluster” and shows a collection of stars and gas about 2,500 light years away from Earth. The gas gives off the appearance of a Christmas tree, whereas the stars give the appearance of ornaments on the Christmas “tree.”
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“It’s beginning to look a lot like cosmos,” NASA joked on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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
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The star cluster itself was detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory telescope, which was launched into space on July 23, 1999. The stars that are part of the cluster, meanwhile, are either smaller or larger than the sun, with some in the cluster having less than a tenth of the sun’s mass, while others have more.
The release of this photo comes about a month after NASA unveiled its “Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster,” which was showcased with NASA’s James Webb and Hubble telescopes. The cluster earned its name due to the flickering lights that researchers spotted within it.
