This weeks APOD is of V838 Mon, the brightest star in the Milky Way as of January 2002. No one knows why but the stars outer surface greatly expanded causing it to brighten. However just as suddenly as it had brightened it seemed to fade. A stellrt flash like this has never been seen before Normally supernovas and novas expel matter out into space. However the stars flash appears to expel material into space, it is actually an light echo moving outward. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away near the constellation Monoceros. The light echo surrounding the star expands to about 6 light years in diameter.
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