English English | Deutsch Deutsch
  • Eta Carinae - A Supermassive Star
  • The Horsehead Nebula
  • The Horsehead Nebula (infrared)
  • The Orion Nebula - M42
  • Orion Molecular Cloud Complex
  • M78 - A Blue Reflection nebula
  • Omega Nebula
  • Ring Nebula
  • Planet-Forming Disc around a New Born Star
  • Simeis 147 supernova remnant
  • The Great Carina Nebula (NGC 3372)
  • The Great Carina Nebula in False Colours
  • V838 Monocerotis - Light Echo of an Erupting Star
  • Open star cluster Pismis 24
  • Black hole Cygnus X-1
  • A gas cloud near the Milky Way's central black hole
  • Black hole
  • Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83) visible light
  • Southern Pinwheel Galaxy M83 Centre
  • NGC 1300
  • The Andromeda Galaxy
  • M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy
  • M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy 2
  • Arp 273
  • NGC 6744 - A Milky Way Twin

This is a sequence of images of the supergiant star V838 Monocerotis that had a stellar outburst (or nova in January 2002. The light bounces off the surrounding layers of dust as it travels through space. The light that travels to us on a direct path arrives first and the reflected light further way from the star reaches us later. It's like turning on a giant light bulb in the middle of space for a certain period of time in order to reveal information about the structure of these shells. This phenomenon is called a light echo.


All text and articles published by Sun.org are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License
V838 Monocerotis - Light Echo of an Erupting Star
Published by Published or last modified on 2019-11-03
Meteorites for sale