A "Christmas Tree" of Young Stars: A Stunning NASA Image (3 photos)
Located 2,500 light-years from Earth, the star cluster NGC 2264 resembles a Christmas tree in shape and color. The stars here are a thousand times younger than the Sun, "only" 1 to 5 million years old. 
The stars here appear as blue and white lights surrounded by swirls of gas — the "needles" of this star tree — with green light in the visible spectrum. 
This image was created using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical data from the Michael Clow Astrophotography Telescope in Arizona. The Chandra data is in red, purple, blue, and white, while the optical data is in green and purple.
The thin, conical green clouds do indeed look like an evergreen tree. And the tiny dots of white, blue, purple, and red light transform the clusters into a cosmic holiday tree. 
