"Path left by Santa's sleigh" goes viral on christmas | SEE PICS

Celebrating Christmas, the European Space Agency (ESA) posted a vibrant image of a "path left by Santa's sleigh." The stunning photo, showing Herbig-Haro objects, the luminous regions surrounding newborn stars, amassed close to 13,000 likes on Instagram.

European Space Agency shares a vibrant space image

Christmas, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, is celebrated on December 25 every year. The ESA stated that the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble telescope, captured the image on December 25, 2021, following an Ariane 5 rocket launch. The ESA shared on Instagram, "On December 25, 2021, an Ariane 5 rocket followed Santa Claus and launched @esawebb into space. Today, Webb brings what looks like the path left by Santa's sleigh."

"Herbig-Haro objects, known as luminous regions surrounding newborn stars (protostars), form when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars create shockwaves by colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds," the caption further explained. The photos and video garnered attention on social media.

One user commented, "Druids called it the snake; our consciousness within the Milky Way is known as the egg of creation. When you see the same and the egg, it represents this. Our consciousness in the Milky Way." Another user remarked, "Looks like a snake or the spaghetti monster," adding an emoji representing surprise. The James Webb Space Telescope launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket on December 25, 2021, took a month to be fully deployed nearly 1.6 million kilometres away from Earth and assumed the role of observing the universe from the Hubble Space Telescope.