[vsnet-chat 2248] Re: (fwd) Nova Paper research

[Taichi Kato <tkato>]

Re: [vsnet-chat 2247] Re: (fwd) Nova Paper research

> The 'nova' terminology is used for various astrophysical phenomena.

  1) supernovae : entire explosion of a star
  2) dwarf novae : intermittent gravitational energy release in white dwarf
                   binaries
  3) X-ray novae : same as 2), but black hole or neutron star binaries
  4) novae : thermonuclear runaway on white dwarfs in binaries

  They are essentially different classes, but the reason is still unjustified
why 4) should be divided into several categories and treat only one of them
as "novae".  The class X-ray novae have no relevance to the companion
(either red dwarf or red giant is possible).

> >   Another interesting case.  If Nova Oph 1998 is indeed confirmed to
> >   be a recurrent nova, should it be dropped from the "nova" list?
> 
> In this case, it should be classified as a recurrent nova to be 
> included in the long list of all novae, but not in the classical 
> novae list. O.k.?

   When if some recent nova is revealed to have exploded in the very past
(e.g. from ancient records), should it be dropped from the classical novae
list?  It severely depends on the recording ability and detection limit
in the past, and sounds only too artificial.  It seems to me more plausible
novae, even when multiple explosions are revealed, remain in the category
of classical novae.

Regards,
Taichi Kato

VSNET Home Page

Return to Daisaku Nogami

---

vsnet-adm@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp