NGC 2264 is the designation number of the New General Catalogue that identifies two

astronomical object An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists in the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms ''object'' and ''body'' are often us ...

s as a single object: the

Cone Nebula The Cone Nebula is an H II region in the constellation of Monoceros. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 26, 1785, at which time he designated it H V.27. The nebula is located about 830 parsecs or 2,700 light-years away from Earth. T ...

, and the Christmas Tree Cluster. Two other objects are within this designation but not officially included, the Snowflake Cluster, and the

Fox Fur Nebula The Fox Fur Nebula is a nebula (a formation of gas and dust) located in the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn) not far off the right arm of Orion and included in the NGC 2264 Region. In the Sharpless catalog it is number 273. The image is ...

. All of the objects are located in the

Monoceros constellation Monoceros ( Greek: Μονόκερως, " unicorn") is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the no ...

and are located about 720

parsec The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (au), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, a ...

s or 2,300

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 101 ...

s from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

. Due to its relative proximity and large size, it is extremely well studied. NGC 2264 is sometimes referred to as the Christmas Tree Cluster and the

. However, the designation of NGC 2264 in the New General Catalogue refers to both objects and not the cluster alone.

Structure

NGC 2264 is the location where the Cone Nebula, the Stellar Snowflake Cluster and the Christmas Tree Cluster have formed in this emission

nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

. For reference, the Stellar Snowflake Cluster is located 2,700

light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

away in the constellation Monoceros. The Snowflake Cluster was granted its name due to its unmistakable pinwheel-like shape and its assortment of bright colors. The Christmas Tree star formation consists of young stars obscured by heavy layers of dust clouds. These dust clouds, along with hydrogen and helium are producing luminous new stars. The combination of dense clouds and an array of colors creates a color map filled with varying

wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tr ...

s. As seen in the photographs taken by the

Spitzer Space telescope The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003. Operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicated to infrared astronomy, f ...

, we are able to differentiate between young red stars and older blue stars. With varying youthful stars comes vast changes to the overall structure of the clusters and

. For a cluster to be considered a Snowflake, it must remain in the original location the star was formed. When referring to this emission

overall, there are several aspects that contribute to the prominent configuration of a snowflake and/or Christmas tree cluster. There is a diverse arrangement of brilliant colors, and an evolving process of structure that follow

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space, sometimes referred to as "stellar nurseries" or "star-forming regions", collapse and form stars. As a branch of astronomy, star formation includ ...

in a nebula. The ratio of

brown dwarf Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen (hydrogen-1, 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main sequence, main-sequence star. Instead, they have ...

s to

stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

is between 1 to 2.5 and 1 to 7.5.

References

External links

NGC 2264 @ SEDS NGC objects pages
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Coordinates In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is si ...

06^h 41^m 00^s, +09° 53′ 00″
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O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!
- Astronomy Sketch of the Day, 12-25-2008
Stellar Snowflake Cluster

Spitzer Spots Stellar Snowflake on the 'Christmas Tree Cluster'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngc 2264 2264 Monoceros (constellation) Open clusters Star-forming regions