Check out the galaxy's Christmas tree

NASA's new image of the Christmas Tree Nebula. Image credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; optics: TA Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) and BA Wolpa (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA); infrared: NASA/NSF/IPAC/CalTech/Univ. of Massachusetts; image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & J.Major

NASA's telescopes have delivered a timely Christmas present from the other side of the galaxy: a new composite image of a particularly festive collection of stars known as the Christmas Tree Cluster.

The “tree” and another deep-sky object known as the Cone Nebula make up the star cluster NGC 2264. Discovered in January 1784 by astronomer William Herschel, it is one of many nebulae nicknamed for their resemblance to an earthly object or living thing. To create the most pine-like image of the star cluster yet, NASA researchers compiled renderings from several sources, including NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The Chandra telescope specializes in capturing X-ray emissions from stars at high temperatures, represented by blue and white spots in the image.

Using the Two Micron All Sky Survey, an infrared project sponsored by NASA at the turn of the century, an animated version of the NASA image was created that shows overlays of each star's X-ray variations.

The stars that make up NGC 2264 are between one and five million years old, according to NASA, and the brightest among them are thought to have a mass equivalent to that of seven suns. The triangular shape they form has been rotated in the image to better emphasize their resemblance to a tree, while optical data from the National Science Foundation's Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale NOIRLab Observatory captures the cloud of misty gas that forms the leaf-like bushes of the Christmas classic.

NGC 2264 is located in the Milky Way constellation Monoceros, about 2,500 light-years from Earth. Although it doesn't stand out in NASA's new image, NGC 2264 is also home to another seasonal group of stars nicknamed the “Snowflake Cluster.” Located within the larger Christmas Tree Cluster, this smaller structure consists of rows of young stars gradually drifting away from a center.

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