NASA releases image of 'Christmas Tree Cluster': How the stars got the festive nickname

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.

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'Christmas Tree Cluster' located in the Milky Way

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]