An ancient nova shell around the dwarf nova Z Camelopardalis

Michael M. Shara (), Christopher D. Martin, Mark Seibert, R. Michael Rich, Samir Salim, David Reitzel, David Schiminovich, Constantine P. Deliyannis, Angela R. Sarrazine, Shri R. Kulkarni, Eran O. Ofek, Noah Brosch, Sebastien Lépine, David Zurek, Orsola De Marco and George Jacoby
Additional contact information
Michael M. Shara: American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and Central Park West, New York, New York 10024-5192, USA
Christopher D. Martin: Math and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Mail Code 405-47, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Mark Seibert: Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, California 91101, USA
R. Michael Rich: 430 Portola Plaza, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547, USA
Samir Salim: 430 Portola Plaza, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547, USA
David Reitzel: 430 Portola Plaza, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547, USA
David Schiminovich: Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
Constantine P. Deliyannis: Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7105, USA
Angela R. Sarrazine: Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7105, USA
Shri R. Kulkarni: Math and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Mail Code 405-47, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Eran O. Ofek: Math and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Mail Code 405-47, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Noah Brosch: Wise Observatory, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv 69978, Israel
Sebastien Lépine: American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and Central Park West, New York, New York 10024-5192, USA
David Zurek: American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and Central Park West, New York, New York 10024-5192, USA
Orsola De Marco: American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and Central Park West, New York, New York 10024-5192, USA
George Jacoby: WIYN Observatory, PO Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, USA

Nature, 2007, vol. 446, issue 7132, 159-162

Abstract: The bright and distant past A dwarf nova is a type of cataclysmic variable containing a collapsed white dwarf star that accretes matter from its close companion in a binary system, a red dwarf. An instability periodically dumps material onto the white dwarf, increasing the luminosity by up to a hundredfold. Classical novae are thousands of times brighter than dwarf novae, and are accompanied by the formation of shells around the system. Theory predicts that dwarf novae will eventually gain sufficient mass to undergo classical nova eruptions. This suspected link between dwarf and classical novae now has an observational basis with the discovery of an ancient nova shell around the dwarf nova Z Camelopardalis. The nature of the shell suggests that a few thousand years ago, Z Cam underwent a classical nova eruption and for some days was one of the brightest stars in the sky.

Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05576 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:446:y:2007:i:7132:d:10.1038_nature05576

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature05576

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().