Image 6-5
Star V838 Monocerotis

This image from the Hubble Space telescope shows an expanding halo of light around a distant star, named V838 Monocerotis. The cloud of dust is illuminated by the red supergiant star at the middle of the image. Called a light echo, the expanding illumination of a dusty cloud around the star has been revealing remarkable details ever since the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002. 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.