File:V838 Mon Light Echo (53610891236).png

English: This view of the V838 Monocerotis light echo uses color to show the passage of time. As the bright flash of light left the star, it illuminated the dust surrounding it, but because space is so big, we see actually see the light travelling and illuminating the dust as it goes along. Each time Hubble looked at the light echo, it revealed only one layer, like the layers of an onion. Here, I've combined multiple layers into a single view, with the innermost one colored red. Next, orange, followed by yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet. You could say red is the oldest light, and violet is the youngest. The result is a prismatic, rainbow-colored view of the dust cloud.

As a concept, light echoes are at first confusing, because we are not used to light being anything but an instant on or off. It's my hope that this image makes it a little less confusing, or at least offers one more way to try and understand the light echo. I also wanted to be able to view the dust cloud as a whole and try to make sense of the many flowing, liquidlike patterns within it.

I've removed the stars from each layer so that they wouldn't be too bright in the end result. Then I re-added them on their own isolated layer in white.

Views from March 2002 to September 2006 were used to create this image.

North is up.