YZ Reticuli, also known as Nova Reticuli 2020 was a naked eye

nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

in the constellation Reticulum discovered on July 15, 2020. Previously it was known as a VY Sculptoris type object with the designation MGAB-V207.

VY Sculptoris type

The variability of the object was first discovered by an amateur astronomer, Gabriel Murawski, and reported on August 6, 2019 with the name MGAB-V207. Archive photometry data from the

Catalina Real-time Transient Survey The Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey is a collaboration using three telescopes looking for optical transients. The same telescopes are used as in the Catalina Sky Survey. They are Mt. Lemmon Survey, Catalina Sky Survey, and Siding Spring Surv ...

and ASAS-SN showed nova-like (NL) brightness variations between magnitudes 15.8 and 17.0, exhibiting a deep dimming event in late 2006. The spectrum shows a hot subdwarf (sdB) or a white dwarf origin, which is consistent with VY Scl type objects.

Nova eruption

On July 15, 2020

Robert H. McNaught Robert H. McNaught (born in Scotland in 1956) is a Scottish-Australian astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University (ANU). He has collaborated with David J. Asher of the Armagh Observator ...

discovered a bright

transient ECHELON, originally a secret government code name, is a surveillance program ( signals intelligence/SIGINT collection and analysis network) operated by the five signatory states to the UKUSA Security Agreement:Given the 5 dialects that ...

( magnitude 5.3) coincident with the position of MGAB-V207 and it was spectroscopically confirmed by the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) as a classical

on July 16. The spectrum includes Balmer, O and FeII emission lines with P Cygni profiles. Spectrum analysis from observations by the Advanced Technology Telescope revealed a similarity to

Nova Sagittarii 1991 A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

, three days after maximum brightness. Pre-discovery images showed that the brightness peak happened on July 9, 2020 at magnitude 3.7. In the days after the discovery, the nova faded by 0.2-0.3 magnitudes per day. This is the third case when an already known cataclysmic variable has undergone a classical nova eruption, following

V407 Cygni V4 or V-4 may refer to: Science and technology * LNER Class V4, a British steam locomotive * V4 engine, a V engine with four cylinders in two banks of two cylinders * Visual area V4, in the visual cortex * Klein four-group, in mathematics * V.4 ...

and

V392 Persei V392 Persei, also known as Nova Persei 2018, is a bright nova in the constellation Perseus discovered on April 29, 2018. It was previously known as a dwarf nova. Dwarf nova A ''U Geminorum-type variable star'' or ''dwarf nova'' is a ...

. The orbital period of YZ Reticuli is 0.1324539 days (3 hours, 10 minutes, and 44 seconds), but in the months following the eruption, the lightcurve also oscillated with periods of 0.1384 and 0.1339 days. These are likely related to the accretion disk and represent a similar phenomenon to

superhump In astronomy, a superhump is a periodic brightness variation in a cataclysmic variable star system, with a period within a few percent of the orbital period of the system. History Superhumps were first seen in SU Ursae Majoris (SU UMa) stars, a ...

References

External links

VY Sculptoris type discovery details
July 15, 2020
Nova Reticuli 2020 bursts into the southern skies - Astronomy.com
July 17, 2020

July 17, 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:YZ Reticuli Reticulum Astronomical objects discovered in 2020 Novae J03582954-5446411 Discoveries by Robert H. McNaught Reticuli, YZ

VY Sculptoris type

Nova eruption

See also

References

External links