V838 Monocerotis Light Echoes Astronomy Time Lapse Music by Mychael Danna

[EdikShepherd]

Can someone explain exactly what is so rare and unusual about this in layman's terms? I understand the concept of light echoes, but I don't understand why this isn't a regular super nova or what-have-you.

I'm not too scientifically savvy

[Raligard]

@EdikShepherd The star did not self destruct, but rather seems to have shed its outter layers. What makes it an oddity is that the star went from being a brilliant blue-white color to a deep red color spectrum. The only reason we got to see anything is because the star was surrounded by dust which was illuminated by the outward moving light from the star, like ripples radiate from a stone thrown into water. The stone doesn't create the water, but we still see the ripples as energy transfered.

[EdikShepherd]

@Raligard Now that is odd, I've never heard of a star "shedding its outer layers" before...

This must be a completely isolated event, then?

I would wager an unseen outside force is involved, but I suppose we must also consider that stars of Monocerotis' size are very rare and could react different in certain scenarios.

[TheZenEffect]

@EdikShepherd Of course you've heard of a star shedding it's outer layers, All sun-mass stars do it before they form planetary nebula. It's the respective size and differentiation in spectrum after the light echo that's primarily different

[jongmagee]

actually VY Canis majoris is the largest known star

[GateMessenger]

Notice how as the images progress the stars in the background get brighter. This shows that something is causing a lensing effect. Does gravity cause a lensing effect via mass? If so then is it the material that is moving away from the star & not light? If the material was already present and the light merely passed by then the stars brightness in the background would not have changed. What could have caused the background stars to become brighter if the material was already there?

[Raligard]

@GateMessenger The photographs were taken at different times with different exposures, so they'll appear brighter in some and fainter in others.

[MrChristian326]

Thanks for posting these tracks from Danna's album, Raligard! I've seen this show 2 or 3 times. The cassette came out later. In my previous comment as to where I bought the cassette - it was at the Ontario Science Center, not at the Planetarium. I bought only books/mags from there. Heck, I still kept the ticket stubs/receipts from that place.

[VCat2006]

So we are watching the movement of light through dust, and not the glowing dust moving away? Amazing.

[JasonWardStudios]

@VCat2006 Exactly! Couldn't have worded it much better.

[csnp11]

This is done very well, perhaps i can use this for one of my science projects?

[Raligard]

I would say sure! Go for it! =)

[nintendoman456]

at decenber 2002 it realy looked like a planet with holes in it.

[KeyboardAttacker0]

this is fascinating. Thanks for the montage!

[Raligard]

Wish I had more images in the sequence. It fascinated me when I read about it for the first time. It is seldom we get to see something so amazing and so rapid in astronomy.

[AggManUK]

That was excellent! Many thanks and all the best! :O)

[Raligard]

Thanks AggManUK =)