12/25/2025
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
O Christmas tree, o cosmic tree 🎄
Located about 2,500 light-years from Earth, NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars between one and five million years old. The stars appear as blue and white lights surrounded by swirls of gas—the “pine needles” of the tree—with green representing light in the visible spectrum.
The image combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical data from astrophotographer Michael Clow’s telescope.
Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/3L9XAPQ
