Just in time for the holidays, a new version of the so-called “Christmas tree cluster” shows a green-tinged image of young stars that resembles the grumpy Grinch character.
The Grinchy Christmas tree cluster, named NGC 2264, is a group of young stars between one and five million years old. (For comparison, the Sun is a middle-aged star about 5 billion years old—1,000 times older.)
It’s about 2,500 light-years from Earth, and astro-photographer Michael Clow captured optical data (in the green and violet range) from his telescope in Arizona last month.
The new image combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, too (from the red, purple, blue, and white ranges).
The wispy green clouds in a conical shape have resembled an evergreen tree, thus the nickname of Christmas tree cluster. But with this latest view, people are loving the image because it conjures the Grinch quite readily.
It’s a festive example of pareidolia—seeing figures in the clouds or in faces staring back from the knotty pine walls of a cabin decorated for Christmas.
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