V838 Monocerotis
E545074
V838 Monocerotis is a peculiar variable star best known for its spectacular 2002 outburst and subsequent expanding light echo, which produced some of the most striking astronomical images ever captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| V838 Monocerotis canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5775500 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: V838 Monocerotis Context triple: [Monoceros, contains, V838 Monocerotis]
-
A.
V Coronae Australis
V Coronae Australis is a variable star located in the southern constellation Corona Australis.
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B.
SN 1987A
SN 1987A is a famous supernova, the closest observed in modern times, whose 1987 explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud has provided key insights into stellar death and supernova physics.
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C.
Eta Carinae
Eta Carinae is a highly luminous and unstable massive stellar system in the constellation Carina, famous for its 19th-century "Great Eruption" and its surrounding Homunculus Nebula.
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D.
R Scuti
R Scuti is a luminous, pulsating yellow supergiant star in the constellation Scutum, known as one of the brightest and most studied RV Tauri variable stars.
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E.
TY Coronae Australis
TY Coronae Australis is a young variable star in the Corona Australis constellation, associated with a nearby star-forming region and circumstellar material.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: V838 Monocerotis Target entity description: V838 Monocerotis is a peculiar variable star best known for its spectacular 2002 outburst and subsequent expanding light echo, which produced some of the most striking astronomical images ever captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
-
A.
V Coronae Australis
V Coronae Australis is a variable star located in the southern constellation Corona Australis.
-
B.
SN 1987A
SN 1987A is a famous supernova, the closest observed in modern times, whose 1987 explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud has provided key insights into stellar death and supernova physics.
-
C.
Eta Carinae
Eta Carinae is a highly luminous and unstable massive stellar system in the constellation Carina, famous for its 19th-century "Great Eruption" and its surrounding Homunculus Nebula.
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D.
R Scuti
R Scuti is a luminous, pulsating yellow supergiant star in the constellation Scutum, known as one of the brightest and most studied RV Tauri variable stars.
-
E.
TY Coronae Australis
TY Coronae Australis is a young variable star in the Corona Australis constellation, associated with a nearby star-forming region and circumstellar material.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
eruptive variable star
ⓘ
luminous red nova candidate ⓘ variable star ⓘ |
| apparentMagnitudeV |
approximately 15.6 before outburst
ⓘ
approximately 6.75 at peak of 2002 outburst ⓘ |
| catalogDesignation |
Nova Monocerotis 2002
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
V838 Mon NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| companion | B-type main-sequence star ⓘ |
| constellation | Monoceros NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| declination | −03° 50′ 50.6″ ⓘ |
| discoveryOfOutburst | January 2002 ⓘ |
| distanceFromEarth |
approximately 20,000 light-years
ⓘ
approximately 6 kiloparsecs ⓘ |
| dustEnvironment |
light echo traces pre-existing dust distribution
ⓘ
surrounded by complex circumstellar dust ⓘ |
| eventDate | 2002 ⓘ |
| evolutionAfterOutburst |
cooled to very late spectral type
ⓘ
enveloped by large, cool, extended atmosphere ⓘ |
| galaxy | Milky Way NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hemisphere | celestial equator region ⓘ |
| hostEnvironment | Galactic disk ⓘ |
| imageFeature | highly detailed dust structures revealed by light echo ⓘ |
| knownFor |
Hubble Space Telescope images
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
expanding light echo ⓘ spectacular 2002 outburst ⓘ |
| lightEcho |
expanding reflection of outburst light off surrounding dust
ⓘ
observed after 2002 outburst ⓘ |
| lightEchoShape | roughly spherical but structured expanding shell ⓘ |
| locatedIn | outer region of the Milky Way disk ⓘ |
| notableImageDate |
Hubble observations in 2002
ⓘ
Hubble observations in 2004 ⓘ |
| observedBy |
Hubble Space Telescope
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
ground-based observatories ⓘ |
| outburst | 2002 stellar outburst ⓘ |
| outburstAmplitude | about 9 magnitudes in V band ⓘ |
| outburstType | multi-peaked optical outburst ⓘ |
| possibleOriginOfOutburst |
luminous red nova-like event
ⓘ
stellar merger scenario ⓘ |
| researchTopic |
late stellar evolution
ⓘ
light echo physics ⓘ luminous red novae ⓘ stellar mergers ⓘ |
| rightAscension | 07h 04m 04.85s ⓘ |
| scientificImpact | challenged classical nova and supernova classifications ⓘ |
| spectralType |
B3 V companion star
ⓘ
cool supergiant-like spectrum after outburst ⓘ |
| variableStarType | peculiar variable ⓘ |
| visibility | visible with small telescopes during outburst ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: V838 Monocerotis Description of subject: V838 Monocerotis is a peculiar variable star best known for its spectacular 2002 outburst and subsequent expanding light echo, which produced some of the most striking astronomical images ever captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.