NASA makes “Christmas tree clusters” come alive

NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” milky way depicted with a new enhanced image to resemble a cosmic Christmas tree.

• NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars that has been colored and rotated to emphasize its nickname, the “Christmas Tree Cluster.”
• This composite image includes X-rays from Chandra (blue and white), optical data from WIYN (green gas), and infrared data from 2MASS (white star).
• The stars in this cluster are between 1 and 5 million years old, while the Sun is 5 billion years old.
• Young stars are volatile and produce strong flares of X-rays and other types of light, but not in the coordinated way shown in the animation.

A cosmic Christmas tree: NGC 2264’s starscape

This new image of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” shows the shape of a cosmic tree with a glow of starlight. In fact, NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars, about 1 million to 5 million years old, located in the Milky Way about 2,500 light-years from Earth. The stars in NGC 2264 are smaller and larger than the Sun, ranging from those with masses less than a tenth of the Sun’s mass to those containing about 7 solar masses.

Festive composite image: color and rotation

This new composite image enhances the resemblance of a Christmas tree through color and rotation choices. The blue and white light (flashing in the animated version, see video below) is a young star that emits X-rays, and the X-rays are detected. NASAChandra X-ray Observatory. Optical data from his National Science Foundation-supported WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak shows gas nebulae in green star clusters that correspond to the “pine needles” of trees. Finally, the infrared data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey shows foreground and background stars as white. The image has been rotated 160 degrees clockwise from astronomers’ standard north-up orientation, so the tops of the trees appear to be toward the top of the image.

This composite image shows a Christmas tree cluster. The blue and white light (blinking in the animated version of this image) is her X-ray-emitting young star detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Optical data from the National Science Foundation’s WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak shows gas in the nebula in green, corresponding to the “pine needles” of trees, and infrared data from the 2-micron all-sky survey shows foreground and background shows the stars. White. The image has been rotated about 160 degrees clockwise with astronomers’ standard of north at the top, so the tops of the trees appear to be near the top of the image.

Star dynamics and observation techniques

Young stars like NGC 2264 are highly volatile, causing strong flares in X-rays and other types of fluctuations seen in different wavelengths of light. However, the coordinated blinking variation shown in this animation was done artificially to emphasize the position of the star seen in the X-rays and to emphasize the resemblance of this object to a Christmas tree. . In reality, the changes in the stars are not synchronized.

The fluctuations observed by Chandra and other telescopes are caused by several different processes. Some of these are associated with activity involving magnetic fields, such as flares like those experienced by the Sun (but much more powerful), and hot spots and spots on the star’s surface that move in and out of view as the star rotates. dark areas etc. Other possibilities include changes in the thickness of the gas obscuring the star, and changes in the amount of material falling onto the star from the surrounding gas disk.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center manages scientific operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.