Author: Alfredo Carpineti
Compiler: wuguanfy
Image source: ESO/M. KORNMESSER
Nova is a bright explosion in the binary star system , white dwarf is stealing matter from its companion star. This material is heated enough to ignite and ejected at high speeds, making the star much brighter than before. Unlike the supernova , white dwarfs can survive nova events and happen again. Now, astronomers have seen the fastest nova on record.
Most novae tend to brighten and then disappear within a few weeks, but as reported in American Astronomical Society Research Notes, V1674 Hercules is not a typical nova. It disappeared within a day, and that was just the beginning of its weirdness.
"Only about a day old, the previous fastest nova was V838 Herculis, which we studied in 1991," said Professor Sumner Starfield, an astrophysicist in Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration and project leader. dropped in about two or three days," it said in a statement.
nova behaves a bit like echoing bells. There is a wobble every 501 seconds, and astronomers were able to detect it in visible light and X-rays. On June 12, 2021, it was so bright it was visible to the naked eye. This wobble continues to repeat even a year after the nova was first observed.
"What is most unusual is that this oscillation is seen just before the outburst, but is also evident when the nova is about 10 magnitudes brighter," said co-author, scientific director of the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory Dr. Mark Wagner added.
"One of the mysteries that people are trying to solve is what drives this periodicity that you see in the range of brightness of the system."
The object was originally discovered by Seidji Ueda, an amateur astronomer from Japan, and attracted the attention of scientists. Understanding these stellar explosions, even in these extremely rare cases, does more than expand our knowledge of stars. It can also tell us how these events affect the chemistry of the solar system.
"We've been trying to figure out how the solar system formed and where the chemical element in the solar system came from," Starfield said.
"One of the things we will learn from this nova is, for example, how much lithium was produced by this explosion. We are now fairly certain that a large proportion of the lithium we have on Earth was produced by these types of explosions."
The system also shapes the flow of ejected material in some way, suggesting astronomers must study more about V1674 Hercules' special system.
Although the nova is not a supernova, it is considered a precursor. With each new star, some material remains on the white dwarf until it becomes too much and collapses on itself, forming a Type Ia supernova .
Source: https://www.iflscience.com/fastest-nova-ever-recorded-spotted-by-astronomers-64059
Author: Alfredo Carpineti
Dr. Alfredo Carpineti is one of the staff writers of IFLScience. He studied astronomy, physics and technology. He holds a PhD in Astrophysics and an MSc in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces from Imperial College London. He is committed to fighting inequality in STEM and is Chairman and Founder of Pride in STEM (@PrideinSTEM), the UK’s largest charitable trust dedicated to supporting LGBTQ+ and people within STEM fields. He is an avid science communicator, producing videos and podcasts under the moniker @TheAstroholic.
