The Christmas Tree Cluster, NGC 2264, is a very young cluster in Monoceros, still forming stars inside the gas that also shapes the Cone Nebula at its tip.
At a glance
| type | open star cluster |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 2,300 light-years (706 pc) |
| its light left it | 2,300 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 8.8 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Christmas Tree Cluster
NGC 2264 is a young open cluster and star-forming region in Monoceros. Its brighter stars trace a triangle that looks like a decorated tree, with the bright blue star S Monocerotis at its base and the dark, pointed Cone Nebula at its apex; in north-up photographs the tree hangs upside down. Around it glows red hydrogen gas, ionised by the cluster’s hot stars, along with the Fox Fur Nebula and lanes of dark dust.
The cluster is so young that many of its members are still contracting towards the main sequence, and it is rich in variable T Tauri stars. Infrared images show further protostars still buried in the cloud, including a compact group nicknamed the Snowflake Cluster. That makes it one of the best nearby places to watch a cluster in the act of being born.
What you see in the piece
In the piece it is a small knot of stars coloured by their temperatures, mostly hot and blue-white. It sits in the outer Milky Way, in the direction opposite the galactic centre.
Questions
Where is the Cone Nebula?
The Cone Nebula is the dark pillar of dust at the top of the Christmas Tree Cluster, part of the same star-forming region in Monoceros.
How far away is the Christmas Tree Cluster?
The Christmas Tree Cluster is 2,300 light-years (706 pc) from the Sun, so its light left it 2,300 years ago.