Engineering topics

Henden, Arne A

Publications and source records attributed to Henden, Arne A.

4 records

DOE OSTI2011

ECLIPSES DURING THE 2010 ERUPTION OF THE RECURRENT NOVA U SCORPII

The eruption of the recurrent nova U Scorpii on 2010 January 28 is now the all-time best observed nova event. We report 36,776 magnitudes throughout its 67 day eruption, for an average of one measure every 2.6 minutes. This unique and unprecedented coverage is the first time that a nova has had any substantial amount of fast photometry. With this, two new phenomena have been discovered: the fast flares in the early light curve seen from days 9-15 (which have no proposed explanation) and the optical dips seen out of eclipse from days 41-61 (likely caused by raised rims of the accretion disk occulting the bright inner regions of the disk as seen over specific orbital phases). The expanding shell and wind cleared enough from days 12-15 so that the inner binary system became visible, resulting in the sudden onset of eclipses and the turn-on of the supersoft X-ray source. On day 15, a strong asymmetry in the out-of-eclipse light points to the existence of the accretion stream. The normal optical flickering restarts on day 24.5. For days 15-26, eclipse mapping shows that the optical source is spherically symmetric with a radius of 4.1 R{sub Sun }. For days 26-41, the optical light is coming from a rim-bright disk of radius 3.4 R{sub Sun }. For days 41-67, the optical source is a center-bright disk of radius 2.2 R{sub Sun }. Throughout the eruption, the colors remain essentially constant. We present 12 eclipse times during eruption plus five just after the eruption.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2010

DISCOVERY OF THE PREDICTED 2010 ERUPTION AND THE PRE-ERUPTION LIGHT CURVE FOR RECURRENT NOVA U SCORPII

We report the discovery by B. G. Harris and S. Dvorak on JD 2455224.9385 (2010 January 28.4385 UT) of the predicted eruption of the recurrent nova U Scorpii (U Sco). We also report 815 magnitudes (and 16 useful limits) on the pre-eruption light curve in the UBVRI and Sloan r' and i' bands from 2000.4 up to 9 hr before the peak of the 2010 January eruption. We found no significant long-term variations, though we did find frequent fast variations (flickering) with amplitudes up to 0.4 mag. We show that U Sco did not have any pre-eruption rises or dips with an amplitude greater than 0.2 mag on timescales from one day to one year before the eruption. We find that the peak of this eruption occurred at JD 2455224.69 {+-} 0.07 and the start of the rise was at JD 2455224.32 {+-} 0.12. From our analysis of the average B-band flux between eruptions, we find that the total mass accreted between eruptions is consistent with being a constant, in agreement with a strong prediction of nova trigger theory. The date of the next eruption can be anticipated with an accuracy of {+-}5 months by following the average B-band magnitudes for the next {approx}10 years, although at this time we can only predict that the next eruption will be in the year 2020 {+-} 2.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2010

CATALOG OF 93 NOVA LIGHT CURVES: CLASSIFICATION AND PROPERTIES

We present a catalog of 93 very-well-observed nova light curves. The light curves were constructed from 229,796 individual measured magnitudes, with the median coverage extending to 8.0 mag below peak and 26% of the light curves following the eruption all the way to quiescence. Our time-binned light curves are presented in figures and as complete tabulations. We also calculate and tabulate many properties about the light curves, including peak magnitudes and dates, times to decline by 2, 3, 6, and 9 mag from maximum, the time until the brightness returns to quiescence, the quiescent magnitude, power-law indices of the decline rates throughout the eruption, the break times in this decline, plus many more properties specific to each nova class. We present a classification system for nova light curves based on the shape and the time to decline by 3 mag from the peak (t{sub 3}). The designations are 'S' for smooth light curves (38% of the novae), 'P' for plateaus (21%), 'D' for dust dips (18%), 'C' for cusp-shaped secondary maxima (1%), 'O' for quasi-sinusoidal oscillations superposed on an otherwise smooth decline (4%), 'F' for flat-topped light curves (2%), and 'J' for jitters or flares superposed on the decline (16%). Our classification consists of this single letter followed by the t{sub 3} value in parentheses; so, for example, V1500 Cyg is S(4), GK Per is O(13), DQ Her is D(100), and U Sco is P(3).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2010

THE CHANDRA VARIABLE GUIDE STAR CATALOG

Variable stars have been identified among the optical-wavelength light curves of guide stars used for pointing control of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. We present a catalog of these variable stars along with their light curves and ancillary data. Variability was detected to a lower limit of 0.02 mag amplitude in the 4000-10000 A range using the photometrically stable Aspect Camera on board the Chandra spacecraft. The Chandra Variable Guide Star Catalog (VGUIDE) contains 827 stars, of which 586 are classified as definitely variable and 241 are identified as possibly variable. Of the 586 definite variable stars, we believe 319 are new variable star identifications. Types of variables in the catalog include eclipsing binaries, pulsating stars, and rotating stars. The variability was detected during the course of normal verification of each Chandra pointing and results from analysis of over 75,000 guide star light curves from the Chandra mission. The VGUIDE catalog represents data from only about 9 years of the Chandra mission. Future releases of VGUIDE will include newly identified variable guide stars as the mission proceeds. An important advantage of the use of space data to identify and analyze variable stars is the relatively long observations that are available. The Chandra orbit allows for observations up to 2 days in length. Also, guide stars were often used multiple times for Chandra observations, so many of the stars in the VGUIDE catalog have multiple light curves available from various times in the mission. The catalog is presented as both online data associated with this paper and as a public Web interface. Light curves with data at the instrumental time resolution of about 2 s, overplotted with the data binned at 1 ks, can be viewed on the public Web interface and downloaded for further analysis. VGUIDE is a unique project using data collected during the mission that would otherwise be ignored. The stars available for use as Chandra guide stars are generally 6-11 mag and are commonly spectral types A and later. Due to the selection of guide stars entirely for positional convenience, this catalog avoids the possible bias of searching for variability in objects where it is to be expected. Statistics of variability compared to spectral type indicate the expected dominance of A-F stars as pulsators. Eclipsing binaries are consistently 20%-30% of the detected variables across all spectral types.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗