Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Light Echoes from V838 Mon

NASA ^ | December 04, 2011 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: NASA, ESA, H. E. Bond (STScI)]

[SunkenCiv]

Ooooh! Ahhhhh!

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[unkus]

Awesome!

[mosesdapoet]

Thank You

[tanuki]

HAL! That’s some upgrade!

[onyx]

Looks like a magnificent jewel!

[moose07]

Thanks for today’s wallpaper upgrade.
Cracking image.

[EternalVigilance]

For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it faded.

Sorta like a Republican presidential candidate.

[LRS]

like this has never been seen before

Hmmmm. But have they been to 3 county fairs and 2 goat effings and ain't never seen nutin' like it?

[762X51]

This blows my mind! The article says that in 2002 this star became the brightest in the Milky Way. Since this star is 20,000 light years away the event actually occurred 20,000 years ago. The Wooly Mammoth still had 10,000 years left to roam the earth. The Ice Age was at it’s peak. A lot happened here on Earth between the time this star became bright and the time we saw it. When you gaze into the night sky you’re seeing history. Ancient history. Some of what you see may no longer actually exist and some things may actually exist that we can’t see yet. Everybody finds God in different places, I find him in the stars.

[ixtl]

Beautiful, but eerie at the same time.

[bigheadfred]

Now that is cool.

I’m asking Santa for a Hubble for Christmas.

[momtothree]

Beautiful, SunkenCiv!

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

Reminds me a little of the maw that planet eating machine had in an original Star Trek.

[left that other site]

That is my Ultimate Favorite APOD PIC!

[SunkenCiv]

Thank you all, for the kind remarks.

Doesn’t this remind you of the Mozilla icon?

[left that other site]

ha Ha! You are RIGHT! It DOES!

[hoagy62]

Perhaps.

[deoetdoctrinae]

Hey girl!
I've been getting this off and on all day.

Service Temporarily Unavailable The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

Are you trying to start the next Freepathon up a little early??? LOL

[onyx]

LOLOLOL.

Perish the thought!

We’ll be back in business soon enough!

GOOD to see you! Rest up!