Bibcode
White, R. L.; Wagner, R.; Sugerman, B.; Sutherland, R.; Starrfield, S.; Munari, U.; Panagia, N.; Henden, A. A.; Levay, Z. G.; Crause, L.; Dopita, M. A.; Cracraft, M. M.; Sparks, W. B.; Corradi, R. L. M.; Vogt, Frédéric P. A.; Bond, H. E.
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #223, #154.18
Advertised on:
1
2014
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
The outburst of the unusual transient V838 Monocerotis in 2002
illuminated surrounding interstellar dust, producing the most
spectacular light echoes in astronomical history. The echoes remained
visible for several years. Because of the light-echo geometry, each
imaging observation corresponds uniquely to a well-defined paraboloidal
region of space illuminated by the outburst. It is therefore possible to
reconstruct the true three-dimensional (3D) distribution of dust around
V838 Mon from a series of observations of its light echoes. We obtained
images of the echoes using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) from 2002 to
2011, as well as complementary ground-based data, in order to monitor
the evolution of the light echoes at regular time intervals. Based on
these images, we reconstruct and visualize the 3D dust density
distribution around V838 Mon. Such mapping of the structure helps
determine whether the illuminated material represents an outflow from
the progenitor of V838 Mon, or pre-existing interstellar dust. A subset
of the HST observations, acquired with a high temporal cadence, paves
the way to a detailed study of a slab of the dust cloud around V838 Mon
on spatial scales as small as ~0.0015 pc or ~310 AU.