00:03Things might be getting all Christmassy here on Earth, but space is getting into the holiday
00:08spirit as well. This is what is now being called the Christmas Tree Cluster, a green speckled area
00:13of the cosmos more often referred to as NGC 2264. The whole thing is actually a couple of cosmic
00:19bodies, including the Cone Nebula. With NASA saying about it in a recent statement, NGC 2264 is in
00:26fact, a cluster of young stars with ages between about one and five million years old. In our
00:31Milky Way, about 2,500 light years away from Earth. That's extremely close in the grand scheme of
00:36things. These images were recently captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, with the space
00:41agency getting into the holiday spirit and animating them together, showing its blue and white lights
00:46flickering. But those twinkles are actually young stars and the powerful X-rays they're giving off.
00:51According to NASA, stars in NGC 2264 are both smaller and larger than the Sun. They say some of them
00:58are
00:58around one-tenth the size of our solar system's central star, while others are seven times its size.
