A little star cluster hauling a Christmas tree. 🎄⁣ ⁣ Discovered about 2,500 light-years from Earth, the Christmas Tree Cluster is a bundle of young stars, most about 1 to 5 million years old. (For comparison, our Sun has been burning for 5 *billion* years.)⁣ ⁣ These stars give off X-rays that were picked up by our orbiting NASAChandraXRay observatory, and are depicted here in various shades of blue and white. They’re surrounded by a nebula of gas observed by other telescopes, shown here in green, giving this cluster (officially known as NGC 2264) its memorable nickname.⁣ ⁣ Image description: A triangle of green gas, resembling a Christmas tree, is filled with blue and white stars that look like Christmas ornaments. Other stars and astronomical phenomena fill the background of the 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: NAS...