NewzVille Desk
This new view of the “Christmas tree cluster” NGC 2264, released on Dec. 17, 2024. It’s really amazing and unbelievable. Actually it combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Obsevatory and optical data from astrophotographer Michael Clow’s telescope in Arizona.
Chandra data is represented in red, purple, blue, and white, while optical data is in green and violet. In a combintion it looks like a Christmas 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 are seen here as blue and white lights surrounded by swirls of gas—the “pine needles” of the tree—with green representing light in the visible spectrum.
