Starship Asterisk*

FLPhotoCatcher wrote:
The other bright stars in view did not illuminate the dust before V838 Monocerotis brightened.
There is every indication that the illumination was spherically symmetric.

There were two pulses mostly in infrared wavelengths after the first one. The main pulse started out blue, and got redder, making it easier to create a 3D map, if someone wanted to. It would still be difficult though - and impossible in some areas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V838_Monocerotis wrote:
Models:

• 1 Atypical nova outburst
  2 Thermal pulse of a dying star
  3 Thermonuclear event within a massive supergiant
  4 Mergeburst
  5 Planetary capture event

FLPhotoCatcher wrote:

Guest wrote:Timelapse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhwGkFM5_jo

I don't get it...
If it´s a light echo, shouldn't the forms change continually, showing the dust structure (like a magnetic resonanse imaging) ?
Also, shouldn't the speed be the same from beginning to end?

It looks like they used the Hubble images and used morphing technology on them - morphing *stretches* the smaller light echo to match the larger one, so it looks like a smooth video.

neufer wrote:

Hugo wrote:
The successive pictures of this light echo over the past 6 years could be used to create a true 3D map of dust in the surrounding region. Would be awesome. Has anyone tried?

I don't know, Hugo.

Even if there is a continuous succession of pictures somewhere it's not as easy a project as one might first imagine:

• 1) There is no guarantee that the primary illuminating source is a single spherically symmetric pulse.
  
  • a) There is continuous bright illumination from the bright stars we see here.
    b) There might have been a number of pulses.
    c) If the pulse source resembled Eta Carinae it seems unlikely that the illumination was spherically symmetric.
  2) The cloud itself might be optically thick in places thereby producing both shadowing & re-echoing complications.

Guest wrote:Timelapse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhwGkFM5_jo

I don't get it...
If it´s a light echo, shouldn't the forms change continually, showing the dust structure (like a magnetic resonanse imaging) ?
Also, shouldn't the speed be the same from beginning to end?

Hugo wrote:The successive pictures of this light echo over the past 6 years could be used to create a true 3D map of dust in the surrounding region. Would be awesome. Has anyone tried?

neufer wrote:

Hugo wrote:
The successive pictures of this light echo over the past 6 years could be used to create a true 3D map of dust in the surrounding region. Would be awesome. Has anyone tried?

I don't know, Hugo.

Even if there is a continuous succession of pictures somewhere it's not as easy a project as one might first imagine:

• 1) There is no guarantee that the primary illuminating source is a single spherically symmetric pulse.
  
  • a) There is continuous bright illumination from the bright stars we see here.
    b) There might have been a number of pulses.
    c) If the pulse source resembled Eta Carinae it seems unlikely that the illumination was spherically symmetric.
  2) The cloud itself might be optically thick in places thereby producing both shadowing & re-echoing complications.

Hugo wrote:
The successive pictures of this light echo over the past 6 years could be used to create a true 3D map of dust in the surrounding region. Would be awesome. Has anyone tried?

• 1) There is no guarantee that the primary illuminating source is a single spherically symmetric pulse.
  
  • a) There is continuous bright illumination from the bright stars we see here.
    b) There might have been a number of pulses.
    c) If the pulse source resembled Eta Carinae it seems unlikely that the illumination was spherically symmetric.
  2) The cloud itself might be optically thick in places thereby producing both shadowing & re-echoing complications.

zbvhs wrote:Is "echo" correct terminology here?