CP Puppis

CP Puppis
Observation data
Epoch J2000      Equinox J2000
Constellation Puppis
Right ascension 08h 11m 46.06s[1]
Declination −35° 21′ 04.9″[1]
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)+37[2] km/s
Distance3,720 ly
(1,140[3] pc)
Other designations
Nova Puppis 1942, 2MASS J08114606-3521049.[4]

CP Puppis (or Nova Puppis 1942) was a bright nova occurring in the constellation Puppis in 1942. From a 17th magnitude star, it reached an apparent visual magnitude of –0.2 then began a rapid decline. It had dropped by three magnitudes in an interval of 6.5 days, one of the sharpest declines ever noted for a nova. About 14 years later, the shell ejected by the nova event was detected, which allowed the distance to be computed. In 2000, this distance was revised to 3,720 light-years (1,140 parsecs) after correcting for probable errors.[3]

The nova outburst can be explained by a white dwarf that is accreting matter from a companion; most likely a low-mass main sequence star. This close binary system has an orbital period of 1.47 hours, which is one of the shortest periods of the known classical nova. Unusually, the white dwarf may have a magnetic field. Other properties of the system remain uncertain, although observations of X-ray emission from the system suggest that the white dwarf has a mass of more than 1.1 times the mass of the Sun.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Cutri, R. M.; et al. (June 2003), 2MASS All Sky Catalog of point sources, NASA/IPAC, Bibcode:2003tmc..book.....C
  2. ↑ Wilson, Ralph Elmer (1953). General Catalogue of Stellar Radial Velocities. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington. Bibcode:1953GCRV..C......0W.
  3. 1 2 3 Orio, M.; et al. (January 2009), "New X-Ray Observations of the Old Nova CP Puppis and of the More Recent Nova V351 Puppis", The Astrophysical Journal, 690 (2): 1753–1763, arXiv:0809.3992Freely accessible, Bibcode:2009ApJ...690.1753O, doi:10.1088/0004-637X/690/2/1753
  4. ↑ "NOVA Pup 1942 -- Nova", SIMBAD, Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg, retrieved 2011-12-30
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/6/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.