Bright new find by SA astronomers
A GROUP of South African astronomers has helped discover one of the brightest novas ever observed.
A nova is an astronomical event when a star suddenly shines very brightly and then fades again over a few months.
It results from a dead star (a “white dwarf”) pulling material from a close companion star onto its surface.
The pressure builds up until there is an eruption equivalent to a million hydrogen bombs going off.
Now‚ a new study led by Elias Aydi at the South African Astronomical Observatory and University of Cape Town is about to be published‚ detailing the optical observations that were made from South African soil.
They come from the Southern African Large Telescope in Sutherland in the Northern Cape.
According to SAAO outreach astronomer Dr Daniel Cunnama‚ the beauty of a nova is from the brightness of the star increasing dramatically and sometimes appearing as a new naked-eye star in the night sky. That is why it is called a nova (“new” star) but it is in fact from activities of a dying star.
The newly discovered very bright nova is located in a small galaxy near the Milky Way‚ some 200 000 light years away from us.
It was first detected in October last year in Argentina‚ but much data about it was missing despite attempts by astronomers around the world to observe it more closely.
Cunnama said nova events were often observed in the Milky Way, with a rate of around 35 eruptions a year‚ but were much rarer in the smaller galaxy where this one had been discovered.