This composite picture exhibits the Christmas Tree Cluster. The blue and white lights (which blink within the animated model of this picture) are younger stars that give off X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Optical information from the National Science Foundation’s WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak exhibits fuel within the nebula in inexperienced, comparable to the “pine needles” of the tree, and infrared information from the Two Micron All Sky Survey exhibits foreground and background stars in white. This picture has been rotated clockwise by about 160 levels from the astronomer’s normal of North pointing upward, in order that it seems like the highest of the tree is towards the highest of the picture.

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) and B.A. Wolpa (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA); Infrared: NASA/NSF/IPAC/CalTech/Univ. of Massachusetts; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & J.Major

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