See The Biggest Christmas Tree, Not On Earth But In Space

With less than a week till Christmas, the night sky is getting festive with what might be the biggest Christmas tree ever.

NASA unveiled a photo of NGC 2264, popularly referred to as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” a collection of young stars situated some 2,500 light-years from Earth, on Tuesday.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory took this picture, which showed a verdant nebula encircling the stars like a cheerful Christmas tree.

The cosmic Christmas tree contains stars that are several times larger than our sun, while some stars are merely a hundredth of the size. NASA also noted that a large number of the stars are young, having only lived for one to five million years in comparison to other stars that have billions of years to live.

The object in the shape of a Christmas tree is too faint for people to walk outdoors and see in the sky, but there might be some lights in the sky around the holidays.

Up to ten shooting stars can be seen in the Northern Hemisphere every hour during the Ursid meteor shower, which is ongoing through December 24.