Mysterious 17th-Century Nova was Actually an Explosion from Two Colliding Stars

First Posted: Mar 24, 2015 09:30 AM EDT
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Astronomers have discovered that the "star" that appeared in the sky in 1670 wasn't a nova, but was something far rarer. They've found that it was the result of a violent breed of stellar collision so powerful that it was bright enough to be easily seen with the naked eye during its first outburst.

"For many years, this object was thought to be a nova, but the more it was studied the less it looked like an ordinary nova-or indeed any other kind of exploding star," said Tomasz Kamiski, one of the researchers, in a news release.

Called Nova Vul 1670, the object varied in brightness over the course of two years. It then disappeared and reappeared twice before vanishing for good. Although it was well documented for its time, the astronomers of the day lacked the equipment needed to solve the riddle of the "nova's" performance.

"We have now probed the area with submillimeter and radio wavelengths," said Kamiski. "We have found that the surroundings of the remnant are bathed in a cool gas rich in molecules, with a very unusual chemical composition."

In the end, the researchers found that the mass of cool material was too great to be the product of a nova explosion. In addition, the isotope ratios around the object were different from those expected of a nova.

Instead, it's likely that the object is the result of a spectacular collision between two stars, more brilliant than a nova, but less so than a supernova. This collision created a red transient; these are very rare events in which stars explode due to a merger with another star, leaving behind only a faint remnant embedded in a cool environment.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

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