“Bright stars illuminate the ‘Christmas tree star cluster’”: that is what the American space agency NASA endorsed in a new image it published on its website on Thursday. One look explains why the star cluster NGC 2264 is rightly nicknamed.
Astrophotographer Michael Clow took a visible-light photo of NGC 2264 from Arizona in November. The optical data was combined with X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra Space Observatory to create this beautiful Christmas-themed image of the cluster, showing not only the suns but also the gas clouds (green, ed.) between them.
The image was rotated approximately 150 degrees from the astronomical standard, with the image facing north (top). This means that the tip of the approximately conical tree is near the top edge of the image.
NASA also publishes animation
NASA also released the footage as a short animation (see video above). In this one, blue and white X-ray dots of “Chandra” flicker and glitter on the tree, like electric lights on a Christmas tree.
The Christmas Tree Star Cluster (scientific catalog name NGC 2264, note) is a so-called open star cluster located about 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Unicorn. It was discovered in January 1784 by the German-British astronomer and composer Wilhelm Herschel.
Source: Krone
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