27
March 2003
Reflected glory: A stellar explosion like no other
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In early 2002, an innocuous star of magnitude 15 in the constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn, suddenly brightened and was briefly the most luminous star in the Milky Way. Named V838 Monocerotis, this new variable was at first thought to be a classical nova but its behaviour soon marked it out as something very different. Unlike a nova, which ejects its outer layers and rapidly becomes extremely hot, V838 Mon evolved to become a luminous, cool supergiant. The main cover image shows V838 Mon as seen by the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the Hubble Space Telescope on 28 October 2002, with insets from 30 April, 20 May and 2 September 2002. The images (described on page 406) show light from the outburst propagating outward into surrounding circumstellar dust, producing a 'light echo'.
An energetic stellar outburst accompanied by circumstellar
light echoes
HOWARD E. BOND, ARNE HENDEN, ZOLTAN
G. LEVAY, NINO PANAGIA, WILLIAM B. SPARKS, SUMNER STARRFIELD, R. MARK WAGNER,
R. L. M. CORRADI & U. MUNARI
Nature 422, 405–408 (2003);
doi:10.1038/nature01508
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