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Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes 
The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes is an establishment of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) of the United Kingdom, the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) of the Netherlands and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in Spain

 
MEDIA RELEASE

 
Reference: ING Press Release, 27/03/2003
Date: Thursday 27 March 2003
Embargo: For immediate release
Other available formats: PDF | TXT
UK mirror of this press release

 
 

SPECTACULAR VIEWS OF AN EXPLODING STAR



An astronomer from the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes has obtained spectacular images of the star V838 Monocerotis which became the brightest in our Galaxy when it exploded in January 2002. One of the images will be highlighted on the front cover of the journal Nature on 27 March 2003 and in a research paper published in the same issue.

V838 Monocerotis erupted in January 2002 when in a few weeks its brightness increased by a factor of ten thousand. This enormous amount of energy suddenly produced by the star was observed shortly afterwards as an expanding giant light bubble. The phenomenon, called "light echo", is an extremely rare event. During a light echo we can see directly the motion of light as it expands away from the star and illuminates all the matter it encounters in its amazingly fast (300,000 kilometres per second!) journey.

One of the first detailed images of this light echo was obtained with the William Herschel Telescope on March 28, 2002. Images taken at successive dates using the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the expansion of the light echo as well as the complex structure of the dust and gas surrounding the star.

Dr. Romano Corradi, the Isaac Newton Group astronomer involved in this research project, comments: "At the time of the explosion V838 Monocerotis became temporarily the brightest star among the one hundred thousand million stars that form our own Galaxy, the Milky Way. We know that V838 Monocerotis is actually a system composed of two nearby stars, whose vicinity is likely to affect the evolution of each other leading to catastrophic consequences like transfer of gas from one to the other. However, the origin of the stellar explosion observed in 2002 is still mysterious and V838 Monocerotis is thought to represent a new class of stellar explosions."

The light echo will slowly disappear as the star is fading back to its previous quiescent state, but in its short lived existence (few years compared to a typical lifetime of a star of several billion years) will provide us crucial information to understand better how stars evolve in the Universe, and how they interact with each other.

The image is part of a research study carried out by the following team of astronomers: Howard E. Bond (Space Telescope Science Institute), Arne Henden (USRA & US Naval Observatory), Zoltan G. Levay (Space Telescope Science Institute), Nino Panagia (European Space Agency), William B. Sparks (Space Telescope Science Institute), Sumner Starrfield (Arizona State University), R. Mark Wagner (Large Binocular Telescope Observatory), Romano L. M. Corradi (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes) and U. Munari (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova).

The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) is an establishment of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) of the United Kingdom, the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) of the Netherlands and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in Spain. The ING operates the 4.2 metre William Herschel Telescope, the 2.5 metre Isaac Newton Telescope, and the 1.0 metre Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope. The telescopes are located in the Spanish Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Canary Islands which is operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).


PICTURES AND MOVIES

20 May, 2002  02 September, 2002  28 October, 2002  17 December, 2002
Caption: Images obtained by Hubble Space Telescope of erupting star V838 Monocerotis on 20 May, 2 September, 28 October and 17 December, 2002.
Picture credit: NASA, European Space Agency and Howard Bond (STScI).
Available formats:
May 20: JPEG 1651×1651 pixels (156K) | TIFF 1651×1651 pixels, 300 dpi (5.5M)
Sep 2: JPEG 1651×1651 pixels (169K) | TIFF 1651×1651 pixels, 300 dpi (5.9M)
October 28: JPEG 1651×1651 pixels (203K) | TIFF 1651×1651 pixels, 300 dpi (6.7M)
December 17: JPEG 1651×1651 pixels (277K) | TIFF 1651×1651 pixels, 300 dpi (7.1M)

Movie of erupting V838 Mon
Caption: V838 Monocerotis light echo sequence from May to December 2002.
Picture credit: NASA, European Space Agency and Howard Bond (STScI).
Available formats:
MPEG (263K) | MOV (5.9M)


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Dr. Romano Corradi
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
Phone: +34 922 425 461
Fax: +34 922 425 401
E-mail: rcorradi@ing.iac.es

Mr. Javier Méndez
Public Relations Officer
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
Phone: +34 922 425 464, +34 616 464 111
Fax: +34 922 425 442
E-mail: jma@ing.iac.es


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE WEB:

This material is being co-released with the European Space Agency (link to press release), NASA/STScI/OPO (link to press release), Arizona State University, University of Arizona, the National Science Foundation and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (link to press release).

More information on the William Herschel Telescope: Public Information on the WHT.

More information on the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING): Public Information on ING