Just days before the end of the year celebrations begin, the Christmas spirit has invaded homes around the world, but also into space, where a “bunch of Christmas trees” have appeared, according to an image shared by NASA.
“It’s starting to look a lot like the cosmos,” the American space agency wrote on X on Tuesday, using the lyrics of a famous Christmas carol.
The Christmas tree illusion, known as NGC 2264, was formed by a constellation of young stars, some larger than the Sun and between 1 and 5 million years old.
This star cluster would be located in the Milky Way, nearly 2,500 light-years from Earth.
“This new composite image emphasizes the resemblance to a Christmas tree through color and rotation selections. The blue and white lights are young stars emitting X-rays discovered by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory,” the space agency said in a statement.
The green glowing pine needles are actually gas.
“This image was rotated approximately 160 degrees clockwise with the astronomical standard of north pointing upward, so it appears as if the top of the tree is at the top of the image,” NASA said.