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Astronomers Reconstruct A Short-Lived Nova Explosion
Saturday, February 1, 2014 5:26
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(N.Morgan) Scientists have reconstructed a short lived Nova explosion, in their quest for knowledge about the Nova. The scientists witness a very powerful explosion on Nov. 11, 2011. Researchers are hunting for other examples of nova ignition.
The star, known as MAXI J0158−744, is a white dwarf—a very old and dense star, exhausted of hydrogen and roughly the size of the Earth yet as heavy as our Sun. MAXI J0158−744 is partnered with a much younger, larger star, which it had been voraciously ‘feeding’ off by sucking hydrogen and helium to resurrect fusion reactions in a fresh layer on its surface. The renewed fusion reactions proved to be unstable and sparked a nova explosion—a massive outburst that blasted the freshly acquired material into space.
Some 22 minutes after the explosion, MAXI detected that the sudden ejection of matter had peaked and that the star’s glowing halo was beginning to shrink. The MAXI team alerted the orbiting Swift x-ray telescope, which swung into action. Less than 11 hours after the initial observation, Swift confirmed the location of the white dwarf and reported that it was emitting low-energy x-rays as it burned off the remaining hydrogen and helium.
The whole process happened more quickly than is typical of novae. Yet it was also much fainter, implying that relatively little mass was ejected in the explosion. The team’s findings suggest that the white dwarf was unusually massive, giving it a higher surface gravity that put the accumulated material under even greater pressure. This meant that less fuel was needed to trigger the explosion and a briefer nova with less ejecta was produced.
Figure 1: The white dwarf MAXI J0158−744 (left) underwent a nova explosion fueled by material drawn from its neighboring star (right). X-rays from the powerful nova explosion (inset) were detected by the MAXI instrument.
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