NGC 2264: Telescopes illuminate 'Christmas tree cluster'

This new image of NGC 2264, also known as the "Christmas Tree Cluster," shows the shape of a cosmic tree with the glow of stellar lights. NGC 2264 is, in fact, a cluster of young stars—with ages between about one and five million years old—in our Milky Way about 2,500 light-years away from Earth. The stars in NGC 2264 are both smaller and larger than the sun, ranging from some with less than a tenth the mass of the sun to others containing about seven solar masses.