Santa Claus in Orion

Right in time for the festive season, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has discovered a huge cloud of high-temperature gas resting in a spectacular nearby star-forming region, shaped somewhat like the silhouette of Santa Claus.

In other images on the site it does look a little like Santa, but you have to have a little imagination to see it. It also helps when they draw in the eyes, although they should have also drawn in his pipe.

(via Dynamics of Cats at Scienceblogs.com)