Discovery of Faint Nebulosity Around a Z Camelopardalis-type Cataclysmic Variable in Antlia: Nova Shell or Ancient Planetary Nebula?

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Bond, Howard E., Patchick, Dana, Stern, Daniel, Talbot, Jonathan, Thorstensen, John R.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Bond, Howard E.
Patchick, Dana
Stern, Daniel
Talbot, Jonathan
Thorstensen, John R.
author_facet Bond, Howard E.
Patchick, Dana
Stern, Daniel
Talbot, Jonathan
Thorstensen, John R.
contents We report our discovery of a faint nebula surrounding a previously little-studied 15th-mag variable star, ASASSN-19ds, in the southern-hemisphere constellation Antlia. Spectra verify that the star is a cataclysmic variable (CV). Using new and archival photometry, we confirm that ASASSN-19ds is an eclipsing binary with an orbital period of 0.139 days (3.34 hr). Moreover, its out-of-eclipse brightness shows a "sawtooth" light curve with an amplitude of $\sim$1~mag and an interval between peaks that varies between about three to nearly five weeks. Its mean absolute magnitude in the Gaia system is $M_G=+6.5$. These combined properties lead to a classification of ASASSN-19ds as a Z Camelopardalis-type CV. We obtained deep narrow-band images of the nebulosity, using modest-sized telescopes and extremely long exposure times. Our imagery reveals a bipolar morphology, with thin arcs at the ends of the major axis, likely indicating an interaction with the interstellar medium. We consider several scenarios for the origin of the nebula, but from the existing information we are unable to distinguish between it being ejecta from an unobserved classical-nova outburst several centuries ago, or an ancient planetary nebula. Future observations should be able to decide between these possibilities. At the star's distance of only $\sim$557 pc, a nova eruption would have been a spectacular naked-eye event.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_11306
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Discovery of Faint Nebulosity Around a Z Camelopardalis-type Cataclysmic Variable in Antlia: Nova Shell or Ancient Planetary Nebula?
Bond, Howard E.
Patchick, Dana
Stern, Daniel
Talbot, Jonathan
Thorstensen, John R.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We report our discovery of a faint nebula surrounding a previously little-studied 15th-mag variable star, ASASSN-19ds, in the southern-hemisphere constellation Antlia. Spectra verify that the star is a cataclysmic variable (CV). Using new and archival photometry, we confirm that ASASSN-19ds is an eclipsing binary with an orbital period of 0.139 days (3.34 hr). Moreover, its out-of-eclipse brightness shows a "sawtooth" light curve with an amplitude of $\sim$1~mag and an interval between peaks that varies between about three to nearly five weeks. Its mean absolute magnitude in the Gaia system is $M_G=+6.5$. These combined properties lead to a classification of ASASSN-19ds as a Z Camelopardalis-type CV. We obtained deep narrow-band images of the nebulosity, using modest-sized telescopes and extremely long exposure times. Our imagery reveals a bipolar morphology, with thin arcs at the ends of the major axis, likely indicating an interaction with the interstellar medium. We consider several scenarios for the origin of the nebula, but from the existing information we are unable to distinguish between it being ejecta from an unobserved classical-nova outburst several centuries ago, or an ancient planetary nebula. Future observations should be able to decide between these possibilities. At the star's distance of only $\sim$557 pc, a nova eruption would have been a spectacular naked-eye event.
title Discovery of Faint Nebulosity Around a Z Camelopardalis-type Cataclysmic Variable in Antlia: Nova Shell or Ancient Planetary Nebula?
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11306