Hubble Time Lapse Shows Epic Stellar Explosion

Like many humans, I get an odd sense of satisfaction of watching things blow up in slow motion, be that a can of Cola packed with TNT, or a balloon filled with Hydrogen, it’s just really cool to watch. So what if we kick things up to an astronomical scale? V838 Monocerotis gave off a massive intergalactic explosion in January 2002, what scientists first thought was a supernova. The team got hubble to lock its sights on the event and take thousands of pictures of the course of 3-4 years, the results of which have allowed them to create a stunning time lapse video.

Of course this video isn’t actually slow motion, it’s just that the scale of the event is hard to comprehend and appears to be moving slowly, but don’t be fooled, as it’s really a stunning shockwave of radiation and gas blasting through space. It’s unclear at this time if the event was a supernova due to its characteristics, but it still puts on a great light show and for those of us who aren’t astrophysicists, its one of the few parts of the discovery that we can enjoy. For those of you who want to know more about the event, check out the full story here. For those of you who just want to see a massive explosion in space, check out the video below.

[youtube width=”800″ height=”450″]http://youtu.be/U1fvMSs9cps[/youtube]

Thank you IFLScience for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of IFLScience.