Skip to content
Surprising Science

Cosmic Xmas

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured festive-looking images of the cosmos (resembling a starry Christmas wreath) just in time for the holidays.

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured festive-looking images of the cosmos (resembling a starry Christmas wreath) just in time for the holidays. “The spacecraft observed a group of young stars called R136, which is only a few million years old and inhabits the 30 Doradus Nebula, part of a relatively nearby satellite galaxy of our Milky Way called the Large Magellanic Cloud. In the photograph, hundreds of brilliant blue stars are surrounded by a ring of warm, glowing orange clouds of dust. The colorful portrait evokes a giant wreath of pine boughs studded with glowing jewels — sort of. And in the hollow center, the dark shadow has the distinct silhouette of a Christmas tree. Really! Finally, if flipped 90 degrees clockwise, the image even resembles the face and beard of Santa Claus himself. Somewhat.” Check it out for yourself below.


Related

Up Next
Scientists have completed research to sequence the genomes of skin and small-cell lung cancers - and it shows that many mutations could be prevented.