A Son of the Rock

Yesterday’s (4/12/11) Astronomy Picture of the Day.

This is a picture of the after effects of a stellar explosion of sorts. The star, V 838 Mon, suddenly flared to many times its usual brightness as an ejection of matter took place. This made it the brightest star in our own Milky Way galaxy for a while. The stellar flash wasn’t a nova or supernova, though, as the star is still there. The circular areas of brightness are so-called light echoes and are due to surrounding interstellar dust reflecting the light from the explosion.

They give the photo almost the appearance of a dress ring with a ruby or garnet stone. Beautiful.