Saturday, June 21, 2014

Explosion of Monocrotis V838

Here is a video made from Hubble images of the star Monocrotis V838.

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/tech/2014/06/13/orig-jag-nasa-hubble-timelapse.cnn.html

This star was discovered about 12 years ago. It was immediately recognized as a "variable star", a star whose brightness changes over time. The Hubble telescope made regular observations of Monocrotis V838 over the next 4 years. It has brightened, then dimmed, then brightened again. The pattern of brightening and dimming is unlike any other variable star observed to date. At its brightest, it was one of the brightest stars in our galaxy (in absolute terms). Read this Wikipedia article for more details....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V838_Monocerotis

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