Cosmic Christmas: NASA shares celestial greetings with star cluster ‘tree’ — see pictures

The spirit of Christmas is here, gifts and wishes are pouring in, and the joy of the holidays has taken over. Amid the choirs and carols of the holiday, Nasa shared its celestial greetings, celebrating the day.The cosmic tree from the nebula group NGC 2264, formed with a cluster of stars emitting blue and white light surrounded by swirls of green gas imitating the pine needles of a Christmas tree, paints an absolutely stunning picture to complement the holiday vibes.The image was originally released on December 17, 2024. It captures the breathtakingly beautiful nebula located about 2,500 light-years from Earth.As pretty as the image is, it was not captured independently. The scientists combined the data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory that captured the colourful stars and optical data, which is the ‘pine needle’ formation from astrophotographer Michael Clow’s telescope in Arizona.In simple terms, the optical data is the light captured from a very powerful telescope, which is visible to human eyes.While the X-ray data is the energy shot out by the young and hot stars, which cannot be captured by the normal human eye. Chandra is a special camera that is designed to capture these energies, which are visible in red, purple and white colours in the image.The images, when brought together, form an astonishing panicle that resembles a Christmas tree, bringing the distant starlight home for the holidays.Marking the auspicious date of Christmas eve, Nasa’s official history account also shared the event from 1968 when astronauts orbited the moon for the first time.“Astronauts orbited the Moon for the first time in history on Christmas Eve, 1968. On their fourth orbit, they captured the sight of the Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon, a photo dubbed ‘Earthrise’,” they wrote.