‘Christmas Tree Cluster’ a unique Xmas present for stargazers
NASA uses image of NGC 2264 to light up the holiday season
The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) on Wednesday posted a unique Christmas card on its Facebook page, featuring a picture of the illuminated star cluster called ‘Christmas Tree Cluster’ to wish Thai stargazers a merry Christmas.
NARIT said the picture was compiled by NASA using data from several sources.
On its website, the US space agency said that this new image of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” shows the shape of a cosmic tree with the glow of stellar lights. NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars — with ages between about one and five million years old — in our Milky Way about 2,500 light years away from Earth, said NASA.
The stars in NGC 2264 are both smaller and larger than the Sun, ranging from some with less than a tenth the mass of the Sun to others containing about seven solar masses, it said.
The agency said optical data from the WIYN 0.9-metre telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona shows gas in the nebula in green, corresponding to the “pine needles” of the tree, and infrared data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey shows foreground and background stars in white.
NASA added that this image has been rotated clockwise by about 160 degrees from the astronomer’s standard of North pointing upward, so that it appears like the top of the tree is toward the top of the image.
