Possible nova, star gone from 13 magnitude to 6 in hours, still getting bri

[Crisp]

Possible nova, star gone from 13 magnitude to 6 in a matter of hours, still getting brighter

 

Bright New Nova In Delphinus ? You can See it Tonight With Binoculars

The possible new nova is located in Delphinus alongside the familiar Summer Triangle outlined by Deneb, Vega and Altair. This may shows the sky looking high in the south for mid-northern latitudes around 10 p.m. local time in mid-August. The new object is ideally placed for viewing. Stellarium

 

Looking around for something new to see in your binoculars or telescope tonight? How about an object whose name literally means ?new?. Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata discovered an apparent nova or ?new star? in the constellation Delphinus the Dolphin just today, August 14. He used a small 7-inch (.18-m) reflecting telescope and CCD camera to nab it. Let?s hope its mouthful of a temporary designation, PNVJ20233073+2046041, is soon changed to Nova Delphini 2013!

 

This more detailed chart will help you find the new star in binoculars and small telescopes. The field containing the possible nova is about three fingers held at arm?s length above the top of the dolphin-shaped constellation Delphinus. Numbers are Tycho visual magnitudes for stars near the nova. Created with Chris Marriott?s SkyMap

 

Several hours later it was confirmed as a new object shining at magnitude 6.8 just under the naked eye limit. This is bright especially considering that nothing was visible at the location down to a dim 13th magnitude only a day before discovery. How bright it will get is hard to know yet, but variable star observer Patrick Schmeer of Germany got his eyes on it this evening and estimated the new object at magnitude 6.0. That not only puts it within easy reach of all binoculars but right at the naked eye limit for observers under dark skies. Wow! Since it appears to have been discovered on day one of the outburst, my hunch is that it will brighten even further.

 

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[Hum]

Coolness -- bye bye solar system. :laugh:

[Growled Member]

Very cool. Not every day we see a nova.

[Phouchg]

"Red nova ignition, phase one:
To set ablaze the cosmos in all directions"

[spacer]

Awesome stuff. Hopefully NASA can point their gigantic telescopes in it's direction soon so we can get better images.

[DocM]

Nova's are a short, bright, flashover in a binary star system, caused by matter from one star being pulled and piling up on its white dwarf partner until it hits criticality explodes. The process then repeats until the "victim" star is consumed.

Something this intense with a long duration is a supernova - an exploding star of at least several solar masses. MUCH more powerful and a one-shot deal.

There is also a hypernova - a star of >5-15 solar masses which explodes forming a black hole (Eta Carinae, near the Southern Cross, will likely do this); colliding neutron stars or black holes; large stars where pair production (electron & positron pairs) cause a core collapse & explosion, etc. causing long duration gamma ray bursts. Wicked.

Eta Carinae is already blowing off gas & dust and will put on quite a show when it finally pops.

[Hum]

It's probably a Death Star, coming to get Earth. :laugh:

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

Mannnnnnnn living in Oz with a perfect view of the Southern Cross, I sooo with I could see that Eta Carinae star blow up with the naked eye. That would be so sweet to see.