Talk:V838 Monocerotis

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Based on http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030327.html, which is in the public domain (Like other NASA-materials, too). -- JeLuF 23:02 Apr 23, 2003 (UTC)

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040305.html has a sharper photo, and they link to wikipedia's Monoceros article. - Jeandré, 2004-03-05t14:16z

Here's a series of four photos showing the expansion of the illuminated region of dust and gas: [1]. --P3d0 14:56, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Starry Night?

Frankly, I think the Starry Night comparison is silly and immaterial. Monocerotis does not look like Starry Night, despite what some anonymous astronomers might assert. --P3d0 14:41, Mar 9, 2005 (UTC)

Agreed, I've removed the section. The 2002-05-20 image comes closest but even then the colors are off. — Jeandré, 2005-03-10t11:24z
Someone added the comparison again - i suppose i'll go ahead and remove it Ka5hmirTalk To Me! 07:13, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
I'm sure they said it somewhere! Maybe it's in a different article. I know I read it! Well, if I do see it (I'm sure it's in the Starry Night article itself, but that's not where I saw it), I'll remove it. Ka5hmirTalk To Me! 07:18, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Question for Astronomers

A question of clarification, to any astronomers out there: is V838 Monocerotis part of the Monoceros Ring, the "trail of stars" being left behind by the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy as it orbits the Milky Way? Or is this a different Monoceros? Thank you.

I'm not an astronomer, but I don't think that V838 Monocerotis is related to the Monoceros Ring in any way except that both lie in the constellation Monoceros.--Jyril 22:30, July 30, 2005 (UTC)
Suspected that might be the case. All right; thank you very much for your time. Brasswatchman July 31, 2005. 11:20 AM EST.

[edit] Interstellar vs. Circumstellar Dust

Analyses of images of V838 Mon from Hubble and the South African Astronomical Observatory suggest that the dust producing the light echoes is more likely in the foreground rather than surrounding the star. The estimated distance of the dust is roughly halfway between the star and the Earth.

I'm a Wikipedia novice, so I'm not sure how to cite the papers publishing these analyses. I'm a researcher studying this star and thought I'd help with the page. Maybe some Wikipedia veteran can help here. I can cannibalize the code you provide for future contributions on this or other topics.

The two main papers on the subject of interstellar dust and the light echoes of V838 Mon are:

L. A. Crause, et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 358, p. 1352 (2005)

R. Tylenda, Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 414, p. 223 (2004)

Any further advice would be greatly appreciated. You're welcome to leave helpful comments on my Talk page.

The Astrogeek 04:17, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Answered on user's talk page. — Jeandré, 2005-09-30t20:19z

[edit] Rewrite request

The first two paragraphs of this article are basically a copypaste job from this Astronomy Picture of the Day page. While the site is a NASA site and therefore the text is (presumably) not under copyright, surely we can do better than this. Chaos syndrome 22:23, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

I'll rewrite this article, if I have enough time. No problem with getting enough material, since there are large amounts of sources available. However, it seems that the mystery is far from solved as the authors tend to reach very different conclusions even in more recent papers.--JyriL talk 15:47, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
Phew, that was fast! :) Several things are still missing--for example, a mention on the important amateur observations (AAVSO), chemical compounds found in the atmosphere, masers, and the post-AGB model could be less biased. Although nova eruption models can probably be dismissed, a nova eruption within a common red giant envelope could be described, etc. The pre-exposion data seems to be patchy, but possible variability should be mentioned. Also, an image sequence showing the expansion of the light echo could be included as a gallery. A diagram [and an animation] of propagating light echo would greatly clarify the text (not to mention a whole article on it).--JyriL talk 00:10, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

The subject of this entry is a Star. It seems to me that early on, we need a statement of the basic data on this star. What is its spectral type and size class? Even if that is uncertain, the basic data needs to be stated with some qualifying equivocation if necessary. Marc

[edit] Purpose?

In times of SETI where extra-terrestrial effects are reduced to no-brainer actions (radio/TV-signals) it's maybe interesting to think about what purpose could have the transformation from before->after. Making a star loose weight should lengthen it's life-span, right? There are star-types that burn just some million years. Is the idea of an intelligence, harvesting a star for long-term use so absurd, under the absurd assumption that extra-terrestrial life would transmit human-entropic information. How stark could a argument for a possible gain of that transformation become, to be a, at least, low-priority serious alternative?—Preceding unsigned comment added by GENtLe (talk • contribs) 18:29, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Science fiction authors like Stephen Baxter have written about such things. —Viriditas | Talk 23:05, 27 July 2007 (UTC)