Sun, 06/10/2012 - 08:11
One thing to get used to with the new forums, now one has to figure out the right category for the subject...haha. Hope this is the place for this.
Question: Since this "nova" was discovered about 2 months ago, hasn't it exhibited highly uncharacteristic behavior for a nova? Rather than peak and decline, or rebrighten once or twice, it has hung around near its max, oscillating sort of randomly by 2 magnitudes. Any ideas about this? The weirdest nova I've ever seen LOL!
Mike LMK
Several spectra by Christian Buil :
http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/nova_oph2012/obs.htm
show the typical features of a Fe Nova near maximum light (narrow lines, P Cygni profiles, many Fe II lines.
Best regards
François Teyssier
But isn't the light curve atypical for an Fe Nova? Essentially constant after outburst? Maybe showing decreasing oscillations, but no real sign of a decline? Could these same spectral features be found in other types of systems?
Mike LMK
During transition
Hi Mike,
During transition phase, the light curves may show a wide variety of appearance :
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1004.3698v1.pdf
Obviously, as you note, N OPH 12 doesn't show a stereotypical lightcurve.
See noticely Fig.
Best regards
François Teyssier
Thank you for the good article Francois! Well, based on the classification system therein, I would say this nova appears to be the "flat-top" F-type, maybe with some jitters or oscillations, even though those sem to be dampening out now. Looks like its most closely related to V849 Oph of those 4 such known ones, which seemed to display declining oscillations at the beginning too. Unless there's something about its spectrum that doesnt fit the F-type?
Anyway, it could be due to begin the rapid decline phase.
A most interesting type, as the article says there is no known physical explanation for the behavior! Any hypothesis out there?
Mike LMK
Based on several recent observations, it appears to be starting a more rapid decline. This is looking more like a nova now. Still its behavior since outburst is pretty unique, sort of "Flat-top" but with large oscillations which damp out somewhat. Maybe this could be a new "FO" classification?
Mike LMK
I think you'll
Hi Mike,
I think you'll find somme answers in this publication :
http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.5611v1
On the rebrightnings of classical novae during the early phase, Tanaka & al., 2010
Some examples of novae with similar light curves.
See also spectra of Nova Sco 2012
by Terry Bolsen, Bernard Heatcote (Australia) and Christian Buil (France) :
http://users.northnet.com.au/~bohlsen/Nova/nova_scorpii_2012.htm
with a very nice animation
and :
http://www.spectro-aras.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=336
Best regards
François Teyssier
Over the past few days this nova has experienced a dramatic drop in brightness. After spending the past 3 months since discovery bouncing between V ~ 10.5 and 12.5, the nova was observed last night (Jun 29.289) at V = 15.95 +/- 0.07. It was V = 13.64 a night earlier (Jun 28.291) and V = 12.73 the night before that (Jun 27.297).
Not only did this nova have a long plateau near maximum but it now seems to be experiencing a dust dip.
A very interesting object and one that I'm having fun following.
- Carl Hergenrother (HCW)