A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Christmas Tree

Image Credit: Rolf Geissinger

What do the following things have in common: a cone, the fur of a fox, and a Christmas tree? Answer: they all occur in the constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros).

Pictured above as a star forming region catalouged as NGC 2264, the complex jumble of cosmic gas and dust is about 2,700 light-years distant and mixes reddish emission nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars with dark interstellar dust clouds.

Where the otherwise obscuring dust clouds lie close to the hot, young stars they also reflect starlight, forming blue reflection nebulae.

The image spans about 3/4 degree or nearly 1.5 full moons, covering 40 light-years at the distance of NGC 2264.

Its cast of cosmic characters includes the Fox Fur Nebula, whose convoluted pelt lies at the upper left, bright variable star S Mon immersed in the blue-tinted haze just below the Fox Fur, and the Cone Nebula near the tree's top.

Of course, the stars of NGC 2264 are also known as the Christmas Tree star cluster. The triangular tree shape traced by the stars appears sideways here, with its apex at the Cone Nebula and its broader base centered near S Mon.

New species of fox found in California

New species of fox found in California

A subspecies of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) living in California's Sacramento Valley - long believed to be a non-native pest - is in fact native to the area, scientists say.

For almost 100 years the red foxes were thought to have escaped from fur farms and hunting parties in the 1900s, but they're actually genetically different than non-native foxes elsewhere in California, The Sacramento Bee reported Saturday.

They are also genetically distinct from the Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) native across most of California, the newspaper said.

Ben Sacks, a biology professor at the University of California-Davis, says genetic testing shows the subspecies, which he calls the Sacramento Valley red fox, is unique to lowland areas north of the American River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

"We can now say that the foxes of the Sacramento Valley are native to California," Sacks said.

"The fact that the evidence is pointing toward it as a native species -- and a native species that we didn't know about -- is kind of an amazing development," said Armand Gonzales, a wildlife program manager at the California Department of Fish and Game. "That doesn't happen very often."