NASA has unveiled another stunning image — a cluster of young stars known as NGC 2264, which resembles a festive "Christmas tree."
This remarkable image combines data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with optical observations by astrophotographer Michael Kloow, based in Arizona. The visualization from Chandra is displayed in shades of red, purple, blue, and white, while the optical data is represented in green and violet hues.
The NGC 2264 cluster is located approximately 2,500 light-years away from our planet. In the image, the young stars appear as blue and white lights, surrounded by gas spirals that resemble "pine needles" in green.
The age of the stars in this cluster ranges from 1 to 5 million years, making them significantly younger than the Sun, which is about 5 billion years old. The mass of the stars in NGC 2264 varies from one-tenth to seven solar masses.