The US White House released its 2006 budget today, which included $16.45 billion US for NASA. This is a 2.5% increase over the previous year, but it doesn’t include any funds to save the Hubble Space Telescope. Only $75 million have been set aside for Hubble, which would only be enough to have a robot steer the aging observatory into a safe trajectory when it needs to be destroyed. The budget sets aside $9.6 billion for science, aeronautics and exploration, and $6.7 billion for the space shuttle and International Space Station.
Galaxies Might Exist Without Stars
Fitted with its new compound eye on the heavens, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Arecibo Observatory telescope, the world’s largest and most sensitive single-dish radio telescope, early tomorrow morning begins a years-long survey of distant galaxies, perhaps discovering elusive “dark galaxies” — galaxies that are devoid of stars.
Astronomers at Arecibo Observatory hope the new sky survey will result in a comprehensive census of galaxies out to a distance of 800 million light years from our galaxy, the Milky Way, in nearly one-sixth of the sky — or some 7,000 square degrees.
The search, conducted by an international team of students and scholars, is the first of a series of large-scale Arecibo surveys that will take advantage of a the telescope’s new instrument, installed last year, called ALFA (for Arecibo L-Band Feed Array). The device is essentially a seven-pixel camera with unprecedented sensitivity for making radio pictures of the sky, allowing astronomers to collect data about seven times faster than at present. The project has been dubbed ALFALFA, for Arecibo Legacy Fast Alfa Survey.
“Fast” does not refer to the time necessary to carry out the survey, which will require thousand hours of telescope time and a few years to complete, but rather to the observing technique, which consists in fast sweeps of broad swaths of sky.
The survey is supported by the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., which manages the Arecibo Observatory for the NSF. In addition, support is being provided through research grants from the NSF and the Brinson Foundation to the project’s leader, Cornell professor of astronomy Riccardo Giovanelli, and to Martha Haynes, a Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy at Cornell.
Giovanelli explains that ALFA operates at radio frequencies near 1420 MegaHertz (MHz), a frequency range that includes a spectral line emitted by neutral atomic hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe. ALFA detects this signature of hydrogen, which hopefully signals the presence of an undiscovered galaxy. Nearly every previous sky survey has been of optically, infrared- or X-ray-selected galaxies.
ALFALFA will be six times more sensitive — meaning that it will go much deeper in distance — than the only previous hydrogen wide-field survey carried out in Australia in the late 1990s. “What has made ALFALFA possible is the completion of the Gregorian upgrade to the Arecibo telescope in 1997, which allowed feed arrays to be placed in the telescope focal plane and expanded the instantaneous frequency coverage of the telescope,” he says.
Besides providing a comprehensive census of the gaseous content of the near universe, ALFALFA will explore galaxies in groups and clusters and investigate the efficiency by which galaxies convert gas into stars. What particularly intrigues astronomers is that ALFALFA could determine whether gas-rich systems of low mass that have not been able to convert their cosmic material into stars — the so-called dark galaxies — actually exist. Because these galaxies, being starless, are optically inert, it is hoped that they can be detected by their hydrogen signature.
The galaxy survey is feasible now because ALFA lets the telescope see seven spots — seven pixels — on the sky at once, greatly reducing the time needed to make all-sky surveys. The Australian-built detector, on the 305-meter (1,000-foot) diameter Arecibo radio telescope, provides the imaging speed and sensitivity that astronomers will need for their search.
Robert Brown, the NAIC’s director, said that a significant fraction of the Arecibo telescope time in the next few years will be devoted to extensive surveys with the ALFA array, such as ALFALFA. The new survey consortium consists of 38 scientists from 10 countries, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Israel, Argentina, Chile, Russia and the Ukraine.
Several of the members are graduate students who will base their Ph.D. theses on ALFALFA data. Among them are Cornell graduate students Brian Kent, Sabrina Stierwalt and Amelie Saintonge.
Says Giovanelli: “My one and only paper published in an engineering journal proposed the construction of a feed array at the upgraded Arecibo telescope to carry out hydrogen line surveys of the sky. It took 15 years of waiting, but I am finally going to do the experiment.”
Original Source: Cornell News Release
Book Review: Apollo 12 The NASA Mission Reports, Volume Two
The Apollo 12 mission landed the second set of crewmen onto the moon. After the success of Apollo 11, the attitude had swung a bit from ‘can we make it’ to ‘what’s the best we can do’. The lunar orbit insertion technique changed, the landing had a distinct target (i.e. near Surveyor 3), and expectations for exploration and assessment were more detailed and grander. If everything else remained the same, this might be considered a trivial advance. But space travel was still new and with the complex and tightly coupled systems involved, something always sprang up. Godwin, in his compilation, provides the official view of many of these occurrences.
The book is loosely divided into three sections. The first examines the expectations and the operations, the second examines the equipment and experiments, while the third looks at equipment anomalies. The expectations centre about the men’s activity on the surface, the geological examination, scientific experiments and their own mobility. Coarse maps and photographs show routes and setups for surface equipment. The operations description describes the descent in some detail, including charts of altitude, pitch, yaw and roll as a function of time. In fact, by continually using a time reference, Godwin provides an excellent metric to keep tabs of what’s happening..
Seeing as this is an official report, it is not surprising that the next section gives much more attention to the equipment and experiments rather than crew activities. Descriptions portray the purpose and composition of most of the experiments. Direct results are listed, such as identifying the number of rolls of film successfully taken. Charts show seismic output. Some of the equipment is profiled. The included pilot’s report gives the precise bureaucratic description of events from launch through to landing back on earth. A simple strip chart lists major events opposite ground elapsed time to permit quick review of activities. Suffice it to say that Apollo12’s mission objectives were almost all completed satisfactorily, that is, the equipment and experiments did what they needed to do.
One of the more interesting parts of this compilation is the review of the anomalies. Imagine sitting on more than 5 million pounds of propellent and then being struck twice by lightening as they were! No serious consequences ensued similarly with other less exciting anomalies. Filters backed up, valves stuck, electronics failed, just like the operation of any large piece of machinery. Perhaps what is more revealing is the small quantity of anomalies. To clarify each, the book provides a point by point description of the anomaly, the resolution and any subsequent action.
Upon reading this book, two powerful messages clearly jump out. The first is the overall complexity of the mission. With help being five days away at best, reliability was critical so care had to be taken and it is a wonder that things went as smoothly as they did. This may account for the pedantic nature of the operations and the dry tone of the reports in the book. The second message is that lessons were learned and actions taken; after all this was the 12th Apollo mission; the second that landed. However, where are these lessons now? Are they only in books like this and dusty government repositories? These unasked questions arise but no answers are present.
Fine as this book is, don’t forget its source, bureaucracy. Dry yes, but to liven your day just watch the included DVD. Astronauts rejoice on landing, sing while collecting geological samples and smile broadly while resting in quarantine. The live video pictures the launch from many angles, the lunar landing, many of the astronaut’s activities on the surface, the rendezvous and the recovery of the crew and capsule after splash down. This double sided disc gives many hours to recreate the mood and feeling of this great event.
What is missing from this book is any discussion, in particular where is the information on the importance of the mission and its objectives. Further, and more important, as most of the book focuses on the anomalies, the consequence of failure should have been added. Did the lightening strikes pose much of a danger? Did the mission ever come close to a hazardous situation and to what consequence? Taking the opportunity to add this perspective would have made this rich book more rewarding.
Von Braun’s vision of the lunar missions was as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Robert Godwin’s compilation in ‘Apollo 12 The NASA Mission Reports, Volume Two‘ provides an excellently edited selection of the milestones that Apollo 12 achieved and the glitches that made its journey interesting. As a combination, the dry tone of the book and the lively feel of the included DVD make for an entertaining and informative reference for this lunar mission.
To get your own copy, visit Amazon.com.
Review by Mark Mortimer
New Logo
You might have noticed, I’ve got a new logo for Universe Today – I figured it was time for a change. 🙂 A big thanks to Liam at neopod for the design. We’re actually working on redesigning the website itself, so if you have any suggestions, now’s the time. Just drop me an email at [email protected].
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today
P.S. Oh, I blew through my 50 Gmail invites, but Google has refilled my pool, so I’ve got another 50 to give away. I’ve actually switched over all my email to run through Gmail, and it’s made my life a lot more productive. If you want an invite to try it out, drop me an email at [email protected].
Upper Limit on Star Mass
New research from the University of Michigan shows that there may be an upper limit to the mass of a star, somewhere around 120 to 200 times bigger than our sun.
The sun is the closest star to Earth and therefore looks very big to us, but compared to other stars in the Milky Way, it?s considered a low-mass star. Knowing that there may be a limit to a star?s mass answers a fundamental question, but raises a raft of other issues about what limits their mass, said Sally Oey, assistant professor of astronomy.
The study is the first to determine the stellar upper mass limit by examining a wide range of star clusters, said Oey (rhymes with chewy). In the paper, ?Statistical Confirmation of a Stellar Upper Mass Limit,? Oey and colleague C.J. Clarke, from the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge, England, compared historical data on 12 OB associations, large aggregates of hundreds to several thousands of young stars.
The paper will appear in the Feb. 10 edition of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Other studies have suggested an upper mass limit of about the same size, but had looked at only one cluster. ?Ours has more statistical significance because we were able to use many clusters,? Oey said.
Oey and Clarke looked at star clusters in the Milky Way, our galaxy, and in the Magellanic Clouds, the brightest satellite galaxies, because they are close enough to enable seeing individual stars and making measurements, Oey said.
?If you looked at any of the clusters, you?ll see roughly the same ratio of big to little stars,? Oey said. Based on the size and number of stars, the probability of finding stars above a certain mass dropped significantly at 120-200 solar masses, Oey said.
The question of mass is an important one because it relates to basic star formation, Oey said. ?My African violets won?t grow any bigger now because their roots are totally taking up the maximum room in the pot,? she said. ?If I repotted them they would grow larger. Are the stars maxed out because the parent clouds are limiting them, or because, like a whale in the sea, there?s something else physical about stars themselves that limits the size?
?The question about why stars have the masses that they do is fundamental, and our lack of understanding shows that we really don?t know some basics of how stars form.?
The biggest stars put out huge amounts of energy by exploding when they die or by releasing ultraviolet radiation during the star?s normal life. That puts tremendous energy into the interstellar medium, which in turn leads to evolutionary activity like renewed star formation and the conversion of gas into stars.
?If you have more stars and energy in the interstellar medium it means more evolutionary activity,? Oey said. ?It stirs things up.?
Original Source: University of Michigan News Release
Saturn Has an Unusual Hot Spot
Astronomers using the Keck I telescope in Hawaii are learning much more about a strange, thermal “hot spot” on Saturn that is located at the tip of the planet’s south pole. In what the team is calling the sharpest thermal views of Saturn ever taken from the ground, the new set of infrared images suggest a warm polar vortex at Saturn’s south pole — the first to ever be discovered in the solar system. This warm polar cap is home to a distinct compact hot spot, believed to contain the highest measured temperatures on Saturn. A paper announcing the results appears in the Feb. 4th issue of “Science.”
A “polar vortex” is a persistent, large-scale weather pattern, likened to a jet stream on Earth that occurs in the upper atmosphere. On Earth, the Arctic Polar Vortex is typically located over eastern North America in Canada and plunges cold artic air to the Northern Plains in the United States. Earth’s Antarctic Polar Vortex, centered over Antarctica, is responsible for trapping air and creating unusual chemistry, such as the effects that create the “ozone hole.” Polar vortices are found on Earth, Jupiter, Mars and Venus, and are colder than their surroundings. But new images from the W. M. Keck Observatory show the first evidence of a polar vortex at much warmer temperatures. And the warmer, compact region at the pole itself is quite unusual.
“There is nothing like this compact warm cap in the Earth’s atmosphere,” said Dr. Glenn S. Orton, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and lead author of the paper describing the results. “Meteorologists have detected sudden warming of the pole, but on Earth this effect is very short-term. This phenomenon on Saturn is longer-lived because we’ve been seeing hints of it in our data for at least two years.”
The puzzle isn’t that Saturn’s south pole is warm; after all, it has been exposed to 15 years of continuous sunlight, having just reached its summer Solstice in late 2002. But both the distinct boundary of a warm polar vortex some 30 degrees latitude from the southern pole and a very hot “tip” right at the pole were completely unexpected.
?If the increased southern temperatures are solely the result of seasonality, then the temperature should increase gradually with increasing latitude, but it doesn’t,? added Dr. Orton. ?We see that the temperature increases abruptly by several degrees near 70 degrees south and again at 87 degrees south.?
The abrupt temperature changes may be caused by a concentration of sunlight-absorbing particulates in the upper atmosphere which trap in heat at the stratosphere. This theory explains why the hot spot appears dark in visible light and contains the highest measured temperatures on the planet. However, this alone does not explain why the particles themselves are constrained to the general southern part of Saturn and particularly to a compact area near the tip of Saturn’s south pole. Forced downwelling of relatively dry air would explain this effect, which is consistent with other observations taken of the tropospheric clouds, but more observations are needed.
More details may be forthcoming from an infrared spectrometer on the joint NASA/ESA Cassini mission which is currently orbiting Saturn. The Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) measures continuous spectral information spanning the same wavelengths as the Keck observations, but the two experiments are expected to complement each other. Between March and May in 2005, the CIRS instrument on Cassini will be able to look at the south polar region in detail for the first time. The discovery of the hot spot at Saturn’s south pole has prompted the CIRS science team, one of whom is Dr. Orton, to spend more time looking at this area.
“One of the obvious questions is whether Saturn’s north pole is anomalously cold and whether a cold polar vortex has been established there,? added Dr. Orton. ?This is a question that can only be answered by the Cassini’s CIRS experiment in the near term, as this region can not be seen from Earth using ground-based instruments.”
Observations of Saturn were taken in the imaging mode of the Keck Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS) on February 4, 2004. Images were obtained at 8.00 microns, which is sensitive to stratospheric methane emission, and also at 17.65 and 24.5 microns, which is sensitive to temperatures at various layers in Saturn’s upper troposphere. The full image of the planet was mosaicked from many sets of individual exposures.
Future work observing Saturn will include more high-resolution thermal imaging of Saturn, particularly due to the fact that the larger polar vortex region may change in the next few years. The team has also discovered other phenomena which could be time dependent and are best characterized by imaging instruments at Keck, such as a series of east-west temperature oscillations, most prominently near 30 degrees south. These effects appear to be unrelated to anything in Saturn’s relatively featureless visible cloud system, but the variability is reminiscent of east-west temperature waves in Jupiter which move very slowly compared to the rapid jets tracked by cloud motions.
Funding for this research was provided by NASA’s Office of Space Sciences and Applications, Planetary Astronomy Discipline, and the NASA Cassini project. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
The W.M. Keck Observatory is operated by the California Association for Research in Astronomy, a non-profit scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA.
Original Source: W.M. Keck News Release
Natural Colour Image of Rhea
The trailing hemisphere of Saturn’s moon Rhea seen here in natural color, displays bright, wispy terrain that is similar in appearance to that of Dione, another one of Saturn’s moon. At this distance however, the exact nature of these wispy features remains tantalizingly out of the reach of Cassini’s cameras.
At this resolution, the wispy terrain on Rhea looks like a thin coating painted onto the moon’s surface. Cassini images from December 2004 (see http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06163) revealed that, when seen at moderate resolution, Dione’s wispy terrain is comprised of many long, narrow and braided fractures.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 16, 2005, at a distance of approximately 496,500 kilometers (308,600 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 35 degrees. Resolution in the original image was about 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel. The image has been rotated so that north on Rhea is up. Contrast was enhanced and the image was magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . For images visit the Cassini imaging team home page http://ciclops.org .
Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release
Report Says Beagle 2 Shouldn’t Have Flown
The British National Space Centre has today published the report of the ESA/UK Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the circumstances and possible reasons that prevented completion of the Beagle 2 mission.
The report was always seen by BNSC and ESA as an internal inquiry. Its purpose was to learn lessons for the future. There were also concerns about the confidentiality of commercial information. The organisations involved were given a strong indication that the information they supplied was only for the use of the inquiry. For these reasons the report was not published. ESA and the UK did however think it right that the recommendations of the report should be published as these covered the most important issues
The Science and Technology Select Committee was also confidentially given a copy of the full report. Subsequently, in view of the Committee’s strongly held view that the report should be published in full, we have discussed the issue again with ESA and have persuaded them that the report should be published.
We have also had further discussions with the other organisations involved about now publishing the report and they are aware that the report is being published today. The contents of the report have not been agreed with the parties.
A full copy of the report, including recommendations, can be found at the following website address: http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/assets/channels/resources/press/report.pdf
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Beagle 2 inquiry was launched on February 11, 2004, by Lord Sainsbury, UK Minister for Science and Innovation, and Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, to investigate the circumstances and possible reasons that prevented completion of the Beagle 2 mission.
2. The Inquiry Commission was set up jointly between ESA and BNSC and was chaired by the ESA Inspector General. The Commission included senior managers and experts from Europe and also from NASA and Russia. Its remit was to:
assess the available data/documentation acquired during development, integration and testing of the Beagle 2 lander on Earth and that pertaining to the cruise phase operations prior to release of the spacecraft to Mars;
analyse the programmatic environment (i.e. decision processes, funding level and resources, management and responsibilities, interactions between the various entities) throughout the project;
identify possible issues and shortcomings, both programmatic and technical, in the above and in the approach used, which might have contributed to the loss of the mission.
3. The recommendations from the inquiry were published on May 24, 2004, when ESA also announced the lessons learnt from the inquiry and its plans to implement the recommendations.
4. The Beagle 2 project was led by the Open University, providing the science lead, and EADS-Astrium, the prime industrial contractor responsible for the main design, development and management of the lander.
5. The Beagle 2 lander was funded through a partnership arrangement involving the Open University, EADS-Astrium, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the Office of Science and Technology and ESA. Funding also came from the National Space Science Centre and the Wellcome Trust. UK principal investigators for Beagle 2 in the UK came from the Open University (gas analysis package), Leicester University (environmental sensors and x-ray spectrometer) and Mullard Space Science Laboratory (imaging systems).
6. BNSC is a partnership of Government Departments and Research Councils with an interest in the development or exploitation of space technologies. BNSC is the UK Government body responsible for UK civil space policy, to help gain the best possible scientific, economic and social benefits from putting space to work.
Original Source: BNSC News Release
Atlas and Proton Launch on the Same Day
In a span of less than 10 hours, International Launch Services (ILS) placed two satellites in orbit today from space centers on opposite sides of the world.
The flights were carried out by, respectively, a Russian-built Proton/Breeze M vehicle from Baikonur and an American Atlas III vehicle from Cape Canaveral. ILS, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin of the United States (NYSE: LMT) and Khrunichev of Russia, markets both vehicles worldwide and manages the missions.
These back-to-back launches were the first missions in a busy year for ILS.
?No one else can do this,? said ILS President Mark Albrecht. ?The cornerstone of ILS is offering two independent vehicles, launching from independent launch sites, which enables us to service two customers at the same time.?
The Proton vehicle lifted off at 9:27 p.m. EST Wednesday (7:27 a.m. today in Baikonur, 2:27 today GMT), carrying the AMC-12 satellite for SES AMERICOM. After about 9 hours and 19 minutes of flight, the satellite separated from the launcher and went into orbit. AMC-12 is expected to go into service in April, providing communications for the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The satellite was built by Alcatel Space of France.
The Atlas III vehicle, designated AC-206, lifted off from Cape Canaveral?s Space Launch Complex 36B at 2:41 a.m. EST (7:41 GMT) with a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The payload was released into orbit about 79 minutes later. Details about the payload and mission, known as NROL-23, are classified.
?What an accomplishment!? said Albrecht. ?We have had tandem missions before, and it?s challenging and exciting, especially for those of us watching from ILS headquarters. The teams on site focus on only one thing ? the success of their particular mission.?
Dual capabilities give ILS ?a robust launch tempo,? Albrecht said. ?Both vehicles launch commercial and government missions, which keep the manifests busy and keep the teams sharp.?
These launches set records for ILS, namely:
* Shortest timespan between launches on both vehicles: 5 hours and 14 minutes (previous records were 7 hours, 10 minutes on Aug. 21/22, 2002, and 9 hours, 12 minutes on June 30/July 1, 2000).
* 75th consecutive successful Atlas launch.
* Final launch of Atlas III vehicle, the second Atlas family to have achieved 100% success throughout its lifetime.
* 5th launch in 12 months for a single customer ? SES AMERICOM (AMC-10 on Atlas Feb. 5, 2004; AMC-11 on Atlas May 19, 2004; AMC-15 on Proton Oct. 15, 2004; AMC-16 on Atlas Dec. 16, 2004; and AMC-12 on Proton Feb. 3, 2005).
The next scheduled ILS mission is at Cape Canaveral in March, an Atlas V launch with the Inmarsat 4-F1 satellite. Another Atlas V is scheduled to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA in August. Proton missions planned through the rest of the year include communications satellites for DIRECTV, MEASAT, Telesat Canada, SES AMERICOM, SES GLOBAL and Arabsat.
This followed a year in which ILS launched 10 satellites, all successfully ? six on Atlas and four on Proton. The Russian government also used Proton for four missions. With a remarkable launch rate of 72 missions since 2000, the Atlas and Proton launch vehicles have consistently demonstrated the reliability and flexibility that have made them the preferred choice among satellite operators worldwide. Since the beginning of 2003, ILS has signed more new commercial contracts than all of its competitors combined.
ILS was formed in 1995, and is based in McLean, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C.
Original Source: ILS News Release
Wallpaper: V838 Monocerotis
The Hubble Space Telescope’s latest image of the star V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures. The effect, called a light echo, has been unveiling never-before-seen dust patterns ever since the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002.
The illumination of interstellar dust comes from the red supergiant star at the middle of the image, which gave off a pulse of light three years ago, somewhat similar to setting off a flashbulb in a darkened room. The dust surrounding V838 Mon may have been ejected from the star during a previous explosion, similar to the 2002 event.
The echoing of light through space is similar to the echoing of sound through air. As light from the stellar explosion continues to propagate outwards, different parts of the surrounding dust are illuminated, just as a sound echo bounces off of objects near the source, and later, objects further from the source. Eventually, when light from the back side of the nebula begins to arrive, the light echo will give the illusion of contracting, and finally it will disappear.
V838 Mon is located about 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros, placing the star at the outer edge of our Milky Way galaxy. The Hubble telescope has imaged V838 Mon and its light echo several times since the star’s outburst. Each time Hubble observes the event, different thin sections of the dust are seen as the pulse of illumination continues to expand away from the star at the speed of light, producing a constantly changing appearance. During the outburst event whose light reached Earth in 2002, the normally faint star suddenly brightened, becoming 600,000 times more luminous than our Sun.
The new image of V838 Mon, taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, was prepared from images obtained through filters that isolate blue, green, and infrared light. These images have been combined to produce a full-color picture that approximates the true colors of the light echo and the very red star near the center.
Original Source: Hubble News Release