V598 Puppis is the name given to a nova in the

Milky Way Galaxy The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...

. USNO-A2.0 0450-03360039, a catalog number for the star, was discovered to be much brighter than normal in

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

emissions on October 9, 2007, by the European Space Agency's

XMM-Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second cornerst ...

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observ ...

. The star was confirmed to be over 10 magnitudes, or 10,000 times, brighter than normal by the Magellan-Clay telescope Magellan-Clay telescope at

Las Campanas Observatory Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS). It is in the southern Atacama Desert of Chile in the Atacama Region approximately northeast of the city of La Serena. ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Pre-discovery images and identification of the progenitor would ultimately shows that the nova brightened from

visual magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's lig ...

16.6 to brighter than magnitude 4. The nova has been officially given the

variable star designation In astronomy, a variable star designation is a unique identifier given to variable stars. It uses a variation on the Bayer designation format, with an identifying label (as described below) preceding the Latin genitive of the name of the conste ...

V598 Puppis and is one of the brightest in the last decade. Despite its brightness, the nova was apparently missed by amateur and professional

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

s alike until XMM-Newton spotted the unusual X-ray source while turning from one target to another. The All Sky Automated Survey determined that the nova had occurred between June 2nd and 5th, 2007, peaking in brightness on June 5th. The orbital period of the two stars in V598 Puppis is 0.1628714 days, or 3 hours, 54 minutes, and 32 seconds.

References

External links

The Exploding Star That Everyone Missed
{{DEFAULTSORT:V598 Puppis Novae Puppis Puppis, V598 20071009 J07054250-3814394