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New images captured by two of NASA’s space telescopes show how light from young stars paints the universe with holiday cheer.
New observations taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope, respectively, show a Christmas tree-like group of stars glowing with lights and a twinkling snow globe.
NGC 2264 is about 2,500 light-years from Earth and is also known as .christmas tree cluster”, a group of young stars surrounded by a nebula’s gas cloud reminds us of a cosmic evergreen adorned with twinkling lights.
The stars are between 1 million and 5 million years old and vary in size, some smaller than the Sun and others larger. The new composite image, rotated 160 degrees clockwise so that the tree tops are upright, includes different wavelengths of light detected by Chandra as well as the ground survey.
in Animated version of the image, the flashing blue and white light represents X-ray light from young stars detected by Chandra. Meanwhile, a cloud of gas resembling a festive tree glows with green light, as observed by the National Science Foundation’s WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert.
The white star that shines throughout the image was revealed by infrared observations from the 2-micron All-Sky Survey conducted from 1997 to 2001. Studying young stars, such as those in the Christmas Tree Cluster, provides insight into their unstable nature. Young stars can emit flares more powerful than the Sun, astronomers are still investigating phenomenon.
The Hubble Space Telescope had to explore a little further to find a celestial winter wonderland. Hubble observed a billion stars shining in a dwarf galaxy. UGC 8091located in the constellation Virgo, 7 million light-years from Earth.
The galactic arrangement of stars looks like a hopelessly tangled strand of light, hastily put away at the end of the holiday season. This disorder is a result of UGC 8091 being an irregular galaxy that lacks the structural appearance of spiral or elliptical galaxies.
NASA/Hubble/ESA
Seven million light-years away, a billion stars twinkle in the dwarf galaxy UGC 8091.
No two irregular galaxies look alike and come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Irregular galactic shapes can be the result of interactions with other galaxies or internal turbulence caused by astronomical objects such as exploding stars.
Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Survey Camera observed UGC 8091 at different wavelengths of light. Data was collected between 2006 and 2021.
The blue light revealed in composite images from these observations comes from newborn stars, while the pink to red glowing spots are caused by heating after interacting with light from young energetic stars. may be hydrogen molecules. Meanwhile, other bright features in the image include old stars and distant background galaxies.
Dwarf galaxies were common early in the history of the universe, but eventually merged to form larger, more structured galaxies. Astronomers can learn about galaxy evolution by studying distant dwarf galaxies and their stars.