Computer Science
Scientific paper
Jul 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006hst..prop10834s&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #10834. Cycle 15
Computer Science
Scientific paper
T Pyx is the only known recurrent nova with a shell. This 'shell' is mysterious because it has been resolved into thousands of knots that apparently aren't expanding. We propose to take a deep F658N image of T Pyx during one orbit to serve as a 12 year baseline from the previous HST WFPC2 images in 1994 and 1995. This much longer baseline will allow us to push down the limits on expansion velocities to ~10 km/s and will allow us to measure the lifetimes of the knots. Also, we expect to discover the expanding inner shell from the last eruption in 1966 which should now have expanded to ~0.9" in radius. Detailed modeling of the observed line fluxes will give the mass of the individual knots and the shells. The details of the expansion velocities, lifetimes, and masses of the knots will determine the nature of the T Pyx shell; with alternatives being a nova shell, a planetary nebula, stalled shocks in a pre-existing shell, or a cloud ionized by the high luminosity and temperature of the white dwarf. If we can separate out the mass ejected during the 1966 eruption, then we can compare it to the total mass accreted between the 1944 and 1966 eruptions 6.0x10^-6 solar mass so as to determine whether the white dwarf is gaining or losing mass on average. If the white dwarf is gaining mass, then it must inevitably exceed the Chandrasekhar mass and collapse as a Type Ia supernova, and thus recurrent novae would be shown to be an important component of the solution to the Type Ia progenitor problem.
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