Sunday, February 3, 2008

Light Echoes from V838 Mon


Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)
Explanation: What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it faded. A stellar flash like this has never been seen before -- supernovas and novas expel matter out into space. Although the V838 Mon flash appears to expel material into space, what is seen in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope is actually an outwardly moving light echo of the bright flash. In a light echo, light from the flash is reflected by successively more distant rings in the complex array of ambient interstellar dust that already surrounded the star. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away toward the constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros), while the light echo above spans about six light years in diameter.

8 comments:

Brooke said...

Beautiful, as always!

Anonymous said...

Oh, God! I used to visit your blog a lot, Eyes; one of the blogs I really enjoy. I have missed it for a long time. Remember the Muhamad cartoon craziness? where I posted every where under the nick fed-up Arab? :)
I'm now even more fed-up; I have become louder; that's the difference.
P.S I liked your post about Christianity very much.
"Many miss the obvious - including me - Our purpose is to heal a broken world."

God Bless you. I'm glad that I have come across your blog again.

The Merry Widow said...

Beautiful shot...fed-up- our purpose as Christians is to introduce the world to Christ and live a G*Dly life of hope...the Holy Spirit saves and Jesus heals.
Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!

tmw
And I agree, Eyes has some of the best pictures in an increasingly ugly world...a blessing indeed!

Eyes said...

Hi Fed-up! Good to see you again, it's been a while. I don't post as much as I used to... lazy I guess.

Hi tmw, actually I didn't mean literal 'healing' as one might heal cancer. What I meant was to encourage the discouraged, and to forgive the wrongs committed against us individually. I see so many Christians being unforgiving and small minded with those who are closest to them. They have grand theological ideas, but never put them into actual practice with those around them. Sorry for the confusion:>D

Anonymous said...

Thank you , Eyes for your answer. And thank you tmw for your nice comment; God Bless you.
I really like this blog and it carries some "symbolism" for me even. I like the excerpts you post from the Bible and how much they fit the picture; you are very good at that because you do that from the heart.
I'm reading more and more in the Bible and learning about wonderful new world. God knows what each carry in his heart.

""Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and has made the Lord his hope and confidence""
- Jeremiah 17:7

I hope I will be among the blessed.

Have a nice day.

Eyes said...

Hi Fed up, Thank you:>D I'm definitely a 'visual' person, so I really like anything that looks beautiful - especially God's creations like the cosmos. I need to do that some more. I'm sure you are among the blessed:>D

The Merry Widow said...

I figured, I'm just being cautious because there is so much heresy out there, it's "those days" and I get nitpicky...sorry, dear!
AND I STILL LOVE THE PICTURES! LOL!
Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!

tmw

cube said...

Eyes, my valentine greeting reminds me of you!