The Newly Discovered Nova Super-remnant Surrounding Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis: Will it Light Up during the Coming Eruption?
A century or less separates the thermonuclear-powered eruptions of recurrent novae (RNe) in the hydrogen-rich envelopes of massive white dwarfs. The colliding ejecta of successive RN events are predicted to always generate very large (tens of parsecs) super-remnants; only two examples are currently...
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2024-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad991e |
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| author | Michael M. Shara Kenneth M. Lanzetta Alexandra Masegian James T. Garland Stefan Gromoll Joanna Mikolajewska Mikita Misiura David Valls-Gabaud Frederick M. Walter John K. Webb |
| author_facet | Michael M. Shara Kenneth M. Lanzetta Alexandra Masegian James T. Garland Stefan Gromoll Joanna Mikolajewska Mikita Misiura David Valls-Gabaud Frederick M. Walter John K. Webb |
| author_sort | Michael M. Shara |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A century or less separates the thermonuclear-powered eruptions of recurrent novae (RNe) in the hydrogen-rich envelopes of massive white dwarfs. The colliding ejecta of successive RN events are predicted to always generate very large (tens of parsecs) super-remnants; only two examples are currently known. T CrB offers an excellent opportunity to test this prediction. As it will almost certainly undergo its next, once in ∼80 yr RN event between 2024 and 2026, we carried out very deep narrowband and continuum imaging to search for the predicted, piled-up ejecta of the past millennia. While nothing is detected in continuum or narrowband [O iii ] images, a ∼30 pc diameter, faint nebulosity surrounding T CrB is clearly present in deep H α , [N ii ], and [S ii ] narrowband Condor Array Telescope imagery. We predict that these newly detected nebulosities, as well as the recent ejecta that have not yet reached the super-remnant, are far too optically thin to capture all but a tiny fraction of the photons emitted by RN flashes. We thus predict that fluorescent light echoes will not be detectable following the imminent nova flash of T CrB. Dust may be released by the T CrB red giant wind in preeruption outbursts, but we have no reliable estimates of its quantity or geometrical distribution. While we cannot predict the morphology or intensity of dust-induced continuum light echoes following the coming flash, we encourage multiepoch Hubble Space Telescope optical imaging as well as James Webb Space Telescope infrared imaging of T CrB during the year after it erupts. |
| format | Article |
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| issn | 2041-8205 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-70bfc2b1931c49a2b317e9fd3c5de6d02025-08-20T02:08:14ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal Letters2041-82052024-01-019772L4810.3847/2041-8213/ad991eThe Newly Discovered Nova Super-remnant Surrounding Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis: Will it Light Up during the Coming Eruption?Michael M. Shara0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0155-2539Kenneth M. Lanzetta1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6906-7594Alexandra Masegian2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-2893James T. Garland3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2922-1416Stefan Gromoll4https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3617-1356Joanna Mikolajewska5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3457-0020Mikita Misiura6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5094-3785David Valls-Gabaud7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9821-2911Frederick M. Walter8https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7796-1756John K. Webb9https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0004-9360Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History , New York, NY 10024, USA ; mshara@amnh.orgDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University , Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800, USADepartment of Astronomy, Columbia University , New York, NY 10027, USADepartment of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History , New York, NY 10024, USA ; mshara@amnh.org; David Dunlap Department of Astronomy, University of Toronto , 50 George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, CanadaAmazon Web Services , 410 Terry Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109, USAN. Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences , Bartycka 18, 00–716 Warsaw, PolandBain & Company , 131 Dartmouth Street, Boston MA 01116, USAObservatoire de Paris , LERMA, CNRS UMR 8112, 61 Avenue de l’Observatoire, 75014 Paris, FranceDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University , Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800, USAInstitute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UKA century or less separates the thermonuclear-powered eruptions of recurrent novae (RNe) in the hydrogen-rich envelopes of massive white dwarfs. The colliding ejecta of successive RN events are predicted to always generate very large (tens of parsecs) super-remnants; only two examples are currently known. T CrB offers an excellent opportunity to test this prediction. As it will almost certainly undergo its next, once in ∼80 yr RN event between 2024 and 2026, we carried out very deep narrowband and continuum imaging to search for the predicted, piled-up ejecta of the past millennia. While nothing is detected in continuum or narrowband [O iii ] images, a ∼30 pc diameter, faint nebulosity surrounding T CrB is clearly present in deep H α , [N ii ], and [S ii ] narrowband Condor Array Telescope imagery. We predict that these newly detected nebulosities, as well as the recent ejecta that have not yet reached the super-remnant, are far too optically thin to capture all but a tiny fraction of the photons emitted by RN flashes. We thus predict that fluorescent light echoes will not be detectable following the imminent nova flash of T CrB. Dust may be released by the T CrB red giant wind in preeruption outbursts, but we have no reliable estimates of its quantity or geometrical distribution. While we cannot predict the morphology or intensity of dust-induced continuum light echoes following the coming flash, we encourage multiepoch Hubble Space Telescope optical imaging as well as James Webb Space Telescope infrared imaging of T CrB during the year after it erupts.https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad991eNovaeRecurrent novae |
| spellingShingle | Michael M. Shara Kenneth M. Lanzetta Alexandra Masegian James T. Garland Stefan Gromoll Joanna Mikolajewska Mikita Misiura David Valls-Gabaud Frederick M. Walter John K. Webb The Newly Discovered Nova Super-remnant Surrounding Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis: Will it Light Up during the Coming Eruption? The Astrophysical Journal Letters Novae Recurrent novae |
| title | The Newly Discovered Nova Super-remnant Surrounding Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis: Will it Light Up during the Coming Eruption? |
| title_full | The Newly Discovered Nova Super-remnant Surrounding Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis: Will it Light Up during the Coming Eruption? |
| title_fullStr | The Newly Discovered Nova Super-remnant Surrounding Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis: Will it Light Up during the Coming Eruption? |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Newly Discovered Nova Super-remnant Surrounding Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis: Will it Light Up during the Coming Eruption? |
| title_short | The Newly Discovered Nova Super-remnant Surrounding Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis: Will it Light Up during the Coming Eruption? |
| title_sort | newly discovered nova super remnant surrounding recurrent nova t coronae borealis will it light up during the coming eruption |
| topic | Novae Recurrent novae |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad991e |
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