It seems NASA is getting into the holiday spirit.
Just in time for Christmas, the space agency released a new image earlier this week of a celestial formation known as the "Christmas tree cluster."
One glance at the photo will reveal why the formation earned the festive moniker.
The grouping of stars, whose ages between about one and five million years old make them on the younger side, appears to form the shape of a green-hued tree – complete with glowing stellar lights.
The space agency shared the photo Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, complete with a description playing on a familiar Christmas carol: "It's beginning to look a lot like the cosmos," NASA intoned.
UFO bill:Congress legislation on UFO records derided for lack of transparency.
Officially called NGC 2264, the "Christmas tree cluster" is located about 2,500 lightyears from Earth in our own Milky Way galaxy.
The swarm of stars in the formation are both smaller and larger than the sun, with some having less than a tenth of its mass and others containing about seven solar masses.
The young stars emit X-rays that appear as blue and white lights that can be detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The green glow, meanwhile, is gas in the nebula, which NASA says serve as the "tree's" pine needles.
The resulting composite image is a dazzling display of stellar lights that – when enhanced with certain colors and shown at a certain rotation – resembles a sparkling Christmas tree.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
2024-12-25 23:21908 view
2024-12-25 22:521517 view
2024-12-25 22:47665 view
2024-12-25 21:171686 view
2024-12-25 20:59757 view
2024-12-25 20:541236 view
Fewer grandparents were living with and taking care of grandchildren, there was a decline in young c
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was arrested by police in Louisville Friday morning on his way to
Brazil was declared host of the 2027 Women's World Cup after winning a vote at the annual FIFA Congr
