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The US space agency has published an image of NGC 2264, a cluster of young stars that some call a “Christmas tree” because of its shape. The agency also released a photo of the star cluster NGC 602, which looks like a Christmas wreath.
NASA's Christmas Tree
NGC 2264 is located about 2,500 light years from our planet. Because the stars in this cluster are relatively young — between one and five million years old — they emit strong flares. Some of them are quite large — 7 times larger than our Sun, while others have one-tenth the mass of our star. For comparison, our Sun is believed to be about 4.6 billion years old.
In fact, the cluster does not look exactly like the photo above, but like this:
In the first photo, scientists highlighted the gas in the nebula in green to make it resemble a Christmas tree, while the infrared dots showing the stars were colored white and blue to make them look like toys and lights.
NASA's Christmas Wreath
NASA also released a photo of the star cluster NGC 602, which looks like a Christmas wreath.
NGC 602 is located on the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way. The image combines X-rays from NASA's Chandra telescope and infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope.
The dark ring-shaped outline of the "wreath" is made up of dense clouds of dust. The photo also shows young, massive stars that illuminate the wreath, sending high-energy light into interstellar space.
