NGC 2264 is the designation number of the

New General Catalogue The ''New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars'' (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxies, star clusters and ...

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. ...

, 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 ...

. 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 parsecs 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 1012 ...

s from Earth. 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

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 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 wavelengths. 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 The "medium" is present further soon.-->interstellar space

in a nebula. The ratio of brown dwarfs to stars 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 sig ...

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