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Just in time for the holidays, a new composite image of the Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264) has been released. This image is a group effort: the blue and white stars in the cluster giving off X-rays are seen by Chandra, while the faint green nebula was imaged by the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars about 2,500 light-years from Earth with ages between one and five million years old, ranging in mass from greater than the Sun to 1\/10th a solar mass.<\/p>\n To show the Christmas Tree shape us humans are familiar with, this image has been rotated clockwise by about 160 degrees from the astronomer\u2019s standard of North pointing upward. That way, it appears as though the top of the tree is toward the top of the image.<\/p>\n NASA points out that the \u2018green\u2019 of the tree comes from the gas in the nebula, which is from the optical data as seen by the WIYN telescope. The bright yellow regions are areas of dense stars. But the Christmas tree also has flickering, colorful lights found within it. The blue and white lights (which blink in the animated version of this image, below) are young stars that give off X-rays. However, the coordinated blinking variations are not what you\u2019d see in space. The artificial blinking lights were added to emphasize the locations of the stars.<\/p>\n