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A Star of Space and Film

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the look-at-the-pretty-picture dept.

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."

3 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Exploding stars by KiroDude · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As I was reading the articles (Hey!, I'm new to Slashdot!!) it occured to me. We always say that the sun will end in billions of years, probably much more years that the human race will be able to exist. But the question I asked myself is, what would be the consequences of the outburst of a "nearby" star. I mean, would the shockwave be big enough to reach earth? Will the gases and radiations be able to reach earth??

  2. Time-lapse image of the burst from 2002 by Animaether · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think it's most impressive when seen in a time-lapse. Not sure if there's any site that has all the images or a month-by-month or something, but I had this image :
    http://www.gothard.hu/astronomy/astronews/images/2 003/20030326-HST-Light-echo-from-star-V838-Mon.jpg
    : bookmarked for a long time now - just killed it this morning(!)

    You have to see it to really appreciate both the beauty and the sheer vastness and speed.

    If anybody has better images, or more images of different points in time, please do reply!

  3. Hubble mistakes by Stunning+Tard · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was reading an informative article about the mistakes of Hubble yesterday.

    It's time for Hubble-2 [google cache cause site down]

    He seems agrees with the parent post but with a much longer explanation. The public has an emotional attachment to Hubble, but it costs too much, stares at the earth 50% of the time, has some communication problems, can only use one of it's instruments at a time and requires multiple billion dollar shuttle rescue/maintenance missions.

    He even speculates that space telescopes could have been built for the price of Hubble.

    As a Canadian I love looking at the pretty pictures you guys paid for. But the machine looks too much like a Stanley cup for my comfort.