This new view of the “Christmas Tree Cluster” NGC 2264, released on December 17, 2024, combines the data. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical data from astrophotographer Michael Clough’s telescope in Arizona. Lunar data is displayed in red, purple, blue, and white, while optical data is in green and violet.
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 are seen here as blue and white lights surrounded by swirls of gas – the “pine needles” of a tree – with greenish light in the visible spectrum.
Read more about the “Christmas Tree Cluster” – and the “Cosmic Cloak”.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Kilo, M; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand