Ahead of the holidays, NASA has released new images of star clusters that bear striking resemblances to festive decorations, particularly, a celestial reef.
The star cluster NGC 602, located in the Small Magellanic Cloud approximately 200,000 light-years from Earth, resembles the common Christmas decoration, according to NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
The cluster, with its unique composition of stars containing fewer heavy elements compared to our Sun, provides a glimpse into the early universe.
“NGC 602 mimics conditions for stars found billions of years ago when the universe was much younger,” NASA officials stated in a Tuesday announcement. The image of NGC 602 combines data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope, which reveals a dark ring-like outline similar in appearance to a wreath.
As seen in the Webb data, the wreath’s structure consists of dense dust clouds which can be seen in vibrant hues of orange, yellow, green, and blue. Chandra’s X-ray observations, represented in red, highlight young, massive stars that illuminate the wreath, emitting high-energy light into the surrounding space.
“These X-rays are powered by winds flowing from the young, massive stars that are sprinkled throughout the cluster,” explained NASA scientists. They added that the extended cloud in the Chandra data likely represents the collective X-ray glow from thousands of young, low-mass stars within the cluster.
In addition to the cosmic wreath, NASA has unveiled a new rendition of the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” officially known as NGC 2264. Located approximately 2,500 light-years from Earth, this cluster hosts stars ranging from one to five million years old, much younger than our 5-billion-year-old Sun.
The image of NGC 2264 combines Chandra’s X-ray data, shown in red, purple, blue, and white, with optical data captured by astrophotographer Michael Clow from his telescope in Arizona in November 2024, represented in green and violet.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, oversees the Chandra program, while the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center manages science and flight operations from Massachusetts.
The wreath-like star cluster, NGC 602, is described as featuring a “giant dust cloud ring, shown in greens, yellows, blues, and oranges,” with the green hues and feathery edges creating “the appearance of a wreath made of evergreen boughs.” The image is enhanced by “specks and dots of colorful, festive light” representing stars and distant galaxies.
NGC 2264, the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” is portrayed with “wispy green clouds in a conical shape” resembling an evergreen tree. The cluster is adorned with “tiny specks of white, blue, purple, and red light,” which are stars within the cluster, transforming the cloud into “a festive, cosmic Christmas tree.”