In space — it’s a satellite! It’s a rocket! No! It’s…a Christmas tree?
“It’s beginning to look a lot like cosmos!”
Those were the words from NASA on Tuesday when they posted a picture to X of what’s known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” otherwise classified as NGC 2264.
According to NASA:
This new composite image enhances the resemblance to a Christmas tree through choices of color and rotation. The blue and white lights (which blink in the animated version of this image) are young stars that give off X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Optical data from the National Science Foundation’s WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak 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. 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.
Related: Deck the Halls With Lots of Racism: Boston Mayor Throws No-Whites-Allowed Holiday Party
As you’ll see below, and as noted above, the animated version of the image of the “Christmas Tree Cluster” makes it look like a tree with blinking Christmas lights.
🎄For even more information about the Christmas Tree Cluster, visit us at: https://t.co/c2Y5LiD7yp pic.twitter.com/01v0CHU3oO
— Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) December 20, 2023
Actual science and space are fascinating. Merry Christmas!
Follow Us On X
All we want for Christmas is for inflation to end pic.twitter.com/fLclpPXK5Z
— MRCTV (@mrctv) December 21, 2023