- NASA has shared a new image of the star-forming region 2,500 light-years from Earth
- 'The Christmas Tree Cluster' has been colored to resemble a real Christmas tree
- READ MORE: James Webb takes a photo of a cluster of galaxies with flickering lights
NASA has seen a Christmas tree that is out of this world.
The US space agency shared a stunning image of the 'Christmas Tree Cluster' – a massive cluster of young stars 2,500 light-years from Earth.
The photo is made to look like a holiday tree, with blue and white used to color the young stars that are no older than five million years – most luminous plasma spheres are between 1 billion and 10 billion years old.
Astronomers also colored the gas in the nebula green to mimic that of pine needles on a tree and rotated the image. clockwise so that the top of the tree points toward the top of the image.
Although the image has been edited, NASA says it is the latest image of the Christmas Tree Cluster taken by the Chandra Observatory.
The photo is made to look like a holiday tree, with blue and white used to color the young stars that are no older than five million years – most luminous plasma spheres are between 1 billion and 10 billion years old
The space telescope is designed to detect X-rays from very hot regions in the universe, such as exploded stars, galaxies and matter around black holes.
Chandra's unique ability to detect and locate X-ray sources made it possible to identify hundreds of very young stars and those still forming, known as 'protostars'.
The Christmas Tree Cluster takes its name not from its shape, but from the brightness of its members: they illuminate the environment with the brilliance of an illuminated Christmas tree.
The cosmic tree is located in NGC 2264, located in the obscure constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn, not far from the better-known figure Orion, the Hunter.
Although the image has been edited, NASA said this is the latest image of the Christmas Tree Cluster taken by the Chandra Observatory
It is a huge multi-star system that emerged from dust and gas only a few million years ago.
The young stars in this region are volatile and undergo strong bursts of X-rays and other types of variations seen in different types of light
“This new composite image enhances the resemblance to a Christmas tree through the choice of color and rotation,” NASA said.
'However, the coordinated, blinking variations shown in the animation are artificial to emphasize the locations of the stars seen on X-ray images and emphasize the similarity of this object to a Christmas tree.
“In reality, the variations of the stars are not synchronized.”
The image was rotated approximately 150 degrees from the astronomer's North standard, which was pointing upward.
“That bend puts the top of the roughly conical tree shape at the top of the image, but doesn't address the slight bare spot in the branches of the tree at the lower right, which would likely need to be rotated toward the corner,” NASA said. .