A morphological catalogue of Nova Remnants

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Santamaria, Edgar, Guerrero, Martin A., Ramos-Larios, Gerardo, Toala, Jesus A., Sabin, Laurence
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Santamaria, Edgar
Guerrero, Martin A.
Ramos-Larios, Gerardo
Toala, Jesus A.
Sabin, Laurence
author_facet Santamaria, Edgar
Guerrero, Martin A.
Ramos-Larios, Gerardo
Toala, Jesus A.
Sabin, Laurence
contents This work presents the first optical imaging catalogue of resolved Galactic nova remnants. It compiles images from proprietary observations carried out at the Nordic Optical Telescope and public archives using different telescopes and instruments. The catalogue includes images spanning from 1950 to 2024 of 66 novae out of the more than 550 novae detected to date. Diffuse emission from a nova shell is detected in 45 sources, with another 16 sources been stellar and five more been barely resolved. We used the catalogue to introduce a main morphological classification of the nova remnants (R - round, E - elliptical, B - bipolar, A - asymmetric, I - irregular, S - stellar, and G - barely resolved) with secondary features (s - smooth, c - clumpy, m - mixed, f - filaments, t - tails, m - multiple shells, e - equatorial brightness enhancement). Resolved nova remnants are mostly round (27%) or elliptical (56%), with very few bipolar or with equatorial brightness enhancement (13%). Most nova remnants are younger than 150 yr, with about 80% of nova remnant detection rate among those younger than 60 yr. The physical size of nova remnants increases with age at a rate of 0.0725 pc per century up to a median value of 0.03 pc. This relationship seems to apply even to the few known ancient nova shells with ages up to a few millennia. The aspect ratio of nova remnants can be described by a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation $σ$ of 0.18 from round morphologies (major to minor axes ratio of unity).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_20053
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A morphological catalogue of Nova Remnants
Santamaria, Edgar
Guerrero, Martin A.
Ramos-Larios, Gerardo
Toala, Jesus A.
Sabin, Laurence
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
This work presents the first optical imaging catalogue of resolved Galactic nova remnants. It compiles images from proprietary observations carried out at the Nordic Optical Telescope and public archives using different telescopes and instruments. The catalogue includes images spanning from 1950 to 2024 of 66 novae out of the more than 550 novae detected to date. Diffuse emission from a nova shell is detected in 45 sources, with another 16 sources been stellar and five more been barely resolved. We used the catalogue to introduce a main morphological classification of the nova remnants (R - round, E - elliptical, B - bipolar, A - asymmetric, I - irregular, S - stellar, and G - barely resolved) with secondary features (s - smooth, c - clumpy, m - mixed, f - filaments, t - tails, m - multiple shells, e - equatorial brightness enhancement). Resolved nova remnants are mostly round (27%) or elliptical (56%), with very few bipolar or with equatorial brightness enhancement (13%). Most nova remnants are younger than 150 yr, with about 80% of nova remnant detection rate among those younger than 60 yr. The physical size of nova remnants increases with age at a rate of 0.0725 pc per century up to a median value of 0.03 pc. This relationship seems to apply even to the few known ancient nova shells with ages up to a few millennia. The aspect ratio of nova remnants can be described by a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation $σ$ of 0.18 from round morphologies (major to minor axes ratio of unity).
title A morphological catalogue of Nova Remnants
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.20053