Nasa’s Hubble telescope captures breathtaking images of the Monocerotis star’s explosion and its aftermath over a span of four years.
In early 2002, astronomers witnessed an enormous explosion emanating from V838 Monocerotis, a red star located some 20,000 light years away from the Earth’s Sun.
As it burst, V838 created an expanding light echo — where light from a stellar explosionbounces off dust surrounding the star — which the Hubble telescope captured in a series of images between 2002 and 2006.
The light eruption was so bright that for a while it was one of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way.
