Overview

• NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a spectacular image of the dwarf irregular galaxy UGC 8091, which is lit up more than the house that belongs to the Christmas light fanatic in your hometown.
• The galaxy is a collection of approximately 1 billion stars, and the interplay of energy and matter bubbles within the galaxy create what almost looks like festive string lights.
• NASA also discovered NGC 2264, a cluster of young stars that uncannily resembles the shape of a Christmas tree surrounded by bright lights. The "Christmas Tree Cluster" is located in the Milky Way, approximately 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.
• The stars in this cluster are between one and five million years old, compared to the Sun’s age of 5 billion years old. Young stars are volatile and produce strong flares in X-rays and other types of light.