A nondescript distant star that suddenly erupted in a brief but blinding flash has revealed surprising clues about its uncommon nature, astronomers reported Wednesday.

Using a series of spectacular images from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as an observational technique that parallels the medical procedure known as a CAT-scan, astronomers also hope to probe more closely a peculiar celestial event called a nova.

The star, named V838 Monocerotis for its location in the constellation of the same name, suddenly grew 600,000 times brighter than the sun in January 2002. The flash temporarily made the star -- in the constellation also known as The Unicorn -- the brightest light in the Milky Way.

Though not the result of a supernova -- a titanic explosion that blasts a giant star into oblivion -- V838 Mon's eruption nevertheless was powerful enough to light up a considerable chunk of its neighborhood.

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