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Large Magellanic Cloud Novae 13 Days After Peak Brightness
William Liller Center for Nova Studies, Casilla 5022, Vina del Mar, Chile
Raquel Yumi Shida Departamento de Astronomia, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil
Presented at a memorial symposium in honor of Dr. Janet A. Mattei, Brandeis University, Waltham MA, October 29, 2004; received January 19, 2005; revised February 24, 2005; accepted February 24, 2005
Abstract If two novae, one fast and one slow, were to go off simultaneously in a distant galaxy, the fast one would be the brighter of the two. But this means that at some point in time after peak brightness, the two novae, fading at different rates, would become equal in brightness. From a study of recent novae in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), we find that 13 days is, on the average, that interval of time, and the average absolute magnitude then is MV= -6.32 +/-0.17. This result is markedly different from that obtained for galactic novae. |
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