V838 Monocerotis revisited: Space phenomenon imitates art

This animation is a morphing sequence between the five individual Hubble images that were taken 1) 20 May 2002, 2) 2 September 2002 (105 days later), 3) 28 October 2002 (56 days after image 2), 4) 17 December 2002 (50 days after image 3) and 5) 8 February 2004 (418 days after image 4).
Credit: ESA/Hubble

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• v838
• variable
• star
• nasa
• eso
• esa
• hubble

[AmyK007]

Wow, beautiful.

[JunCTionS]

hi!, nice video and quality. although correct me if I'm wrong... while morphing you're disregarding the phenomenon here. V838 is not a cloud expanding (as are normal supernovas) but light "echoing" (hitting different parts) of an interstellar cloud that shouldn't behave as morphing shows.

I wonder where I can get more equally spaced photos of this beautiful and amazing star/phenomenon

[alexmackrocks]

@JunCTionS OMG you know yur planets! where is Sirius? what galaxy is that from?

[edisonxjdrh]

Creo que esa explosion arrasaria con este sistema solar sin dejar rastro alguno, me encanta esta estrella supergigante roja......

[tsns1]

Nice work, puts it into perspective.

[drtony999]

COOL! I LOVE IT!

[Algolei]

Nice!

[1JONATHAN]

great - i like how u simulate flying toward it asthe light echo travels outward :)

[MrGnang]

Beautiful

[mvivian100]

The alien looking face in the lowerish left corner during the final frames is kinda cool! No im not suggesting anything, just saying its cool.

[Hewpie]

This highlights the different kinds of interpolation you can get - the simplest being frame blending, morphing, and 3-d interpolation. You would get the same effect as sweeping a band of laser light through wisps of smoke with 3-d interpolation.

It's a real pity the HST didn't image it every few days or so.

I've just had an idea on how to model this using plasticine - bear with me...

[oneeyedwidgetsfriend]

You're completely correct. This movie does not represent the actual 'ligho echo' phenomena, it's just a nice representation of the average between images. It's possible to actually construct a 3D map on the gas/dust by interpolating between the gas/dust in the images, thereby filling in the 'blanks' with educated guess work. However, the problem isn't trivial ! I think someone has performed the 3D mapping but I haven't seen the results. Watch this space!