Light echoes around the star V Monocerotis Hubble Space Telescope image This star underwent a massive brightening or nova in Since then the light released by this event has illuminated a series of shells of gas and dust that surrounded the star The shells are thought to have been formed by ejections from the star in its past The nova is unusual in that the stars outer layers were not ejected in the event it merely grew enormously in size Studying the shells may increase understanding of the stars behaviour V Monocerotis lies around light years from Earth in the constellation Monoceros Image taken on rd October