Thought Christmas was just an Earth thing? Think again.

Astronomers have spotted a massive candy cane near the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, 190 light-years long - that's 1797 trillion kilometres.

The tasty space treat features in a new image compiled by NASA scientists showing a scene 750 light-years across, created with a 30m-wide telescope in Spain and an instrument called the Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer in Washington DC.

Located about 27,000 light-years away, the cane can't be seen with the naked eye, or any normal telescope.

"GISMO observes microwaves with a wavelength of 2 millimeters, allowing us to explore the galaxy in the transition zone between infrared light and longer radio wavelengths," said GISMO team leader Johannes Staguhn.