Watching the spectral evolution of V838 Mon - a stellar merger
SOFIA FORCAST measurements (orange) of V838 Mon spectrum and best-fit model (yellow) overlaid on an HST image. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Spectra: Woodward et al. 2021. V838 Mon is an intriguing binary, which exploded as a luminous red nova in 2002. It is perhaps most famous for its spectacular light echo that was observable for several years (see picture above). Despite the fact that two decades have passed since its discovery, V838 Mon still offers exciting opportunities for astronomers to investigate astrophysical processes, as is described in the recent publication by Woodward et al. 2021, AJ162, 183 and summarized in the SciTechDaily news story: Stellar merger's astrophysical evolution in the blink of an eye Jan 21, 2022. This work is mainly based on mid-IR observations with SOFIA's FORCAST camera, and NOTCam at the NOT contributed with the near-IR fluxes needed to constrain the spectral energy distribution at short wavelengths.
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