Last Christmas, NASA Chandra Xray shared an image of a star cluster. This year, new telescope images, combined with Chandra data, offered an even more special view.

The Christmas Tree Cluster, located about 2500 light-years away in the Milky Way, is made up of young stars with ages ranging from 1-5 million years. The X-rays detected by Chandra are represented in blue and white tones in this image. The swirls of gas swirling around the stars look like the “pine needles” of the tree, and the green color reflects the glow in the visible light spectrum.

The green and purple optical data in the first image was taken by astrophotographer Michael Clow with his telescope in Arizona in November 2024. In the second image, released in 2023, the green-tinged optical data were recorded with the National Science Foundation's WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona.

These images have been rotated clockwise by about 160 degrees from the standard arrangement used by astronomers, where North is up. This places the top of the tree at the top of the images.

Image descriptions:
1. The wavy green clouds with a conical shape resemble an evergreen tree. Small specks of white, blue, purple and red light - the stars in the cluster - decorate the structure, turning the cloud into a festive, cosmic Christmas tree.

2. The wavy green lines and shapes resemble the branches and needles of an evergreen tree, scattered with blue and white glowing lights - the stars in the cluster. The apex of the tree is in the upper center of the image. The stars are seen in the foreground and background as specks of white light shimmering against the darkness of space.

 

Credits:
1. X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optics: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand

2. X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optics: T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) and B.A. Wolpa (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA); Infrared: NASA/NSF/IPAC/Caltech/Univ. of Massachusetts; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & J. Major