Zoltan Levay
V838 Monocerotis Light Echo, 2004

Astrophotograph; digital exposure using astronomical CCD camera

NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), and the Hubble Heritage Team of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

TThis image recorded the “light echo” from a sudden brightening of the red supergiant star V838 Monocerotis as it appeared in February 2004.  It is one of a series of exposures obtained by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope showing the pulse of light expanding through and illuminating the interstellar medium within a few light-years surrounding the fading star. The color image has been reconstructed from exposures through three broadband filters sampling red/near-infrared, yellow/green, and blue light.

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