Slashdot Mirror
A Star of Space and Film
Rollie Hawk writes "Three years ago, light from V838 Monocerotis (a star about 20,000 light years from us) reached the Earth that showed the star exploding. The more politically correct term for what happened is "stellar outburst." In the time since, images from a pulse of light released during the outburst have been arriving here on Earth. In October of 2004, Hubble captured a beautiful image of the scene with the pulse lighting up interstellar gasses that encapsulated the area around this red giant (a star 600,000 times brighter than our Sun). The release of this photo just days ago seems rather timely, as it appears that some of Hubble's funding may be cut in the near future. There is also talk of eliminating the program entirely."
Superman escaping from the planet?
I make pictures like that with photoshop all the time.
Is there some ethnic minority exploding stars that will be offended??
but note to you amateur photoshop n00bs (including myself): Just because you see it in these great pics, Lens flare is *never* cool. Put that filter away!
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Wow. It looks just like the opening title sequence of circa 1980s Doctor Who.
My guess is that in a couple of decades those stars will slowly begin to form the image of Tom Baker.
The image is 12 Light-years wide, so displaying it on your monitor, it is going to look pretty sharp!
I spent ages trying to think of sig, but never did
The more politically correct term for what happened is "stellar outburst."
Are we still talking about the supernova, or Barbara Boxer?