Related papers: Was there a (super)nova in 1408?
M31 RV is a red transient that erupted in 1988 in the Andromeda bulge, reaching a luminosity intermediate between novae and supernovae. It was cool throughout its outburst, unlike a normal classical nova. In 2006, Bond & Siegel examined…
Massive galaxy clusters at intermediate redshift can magnify the flux of distant background sources by several magnitudes and we exploit this effect to search for lensed distant supernovae that may otherwise be too faint to be detected. A…
SN2008S and the 2008 NGC300-OT were explosive transients of stars self-obscured by very dense, dusty stellar winds. An explosive transient with an un-observed shock break-out luminosity of order 10^10 Lsun is required to render the…
While nova eruptions produce some of the most common and dramatic dust formation episodes among astrophysical transients, the demographics of dust-forming novae remain poorly understood. Here, we present a statistical study of dust…
M31N 2015-01a (or M31LRN 2015) is a red nova that erupted in January 2015 -- the first event of this kind observed in M31 since 1988. Very few similar events have been confirmed as of 2015. Most of them are considered to be products of…
We revisit the issue of period variation of the recently claimed red nova precursor candidate KIC 9832227. By using the data gathered during the main mission of the Kepler satellite, those collected by ground-based wide-field surveys and…
Aims. We report the discovery of a peculiar object observed serendipitously with XMM-Newton. We present its timing and spectral properties and investigate its optical counterpart. Methods. The light curve of the X-ray source, its spectrum,…
We present CCD photometry, light curve and time series analysis of the classical nova V382 Vel (N Vel 1999). The source was observed for 2 nights in 2000, 21 nights in 2001 and 7 nights in 2002 using clear filters. We report the detection…
This paper presents an analysis of the star atlas included in the medieval Chinese manuscript (Or.8210/S.3326), discovered in 1907 by the archaeologist Aurel Stein at the Silk Road town of Dunhuang and now held in the British Library.…
The Star of Bethlehem is only known from a few verses in the Gospel of Matthew, with the Star inspiring and leading the Magi (i.e., Persian astrologers) to Jerusalem and ultimately worshipping the young Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. In the…
We analyse long-term optical photometry for two Galactic recurrent novae (V745 Sco and V3890 Sgr) and one Large Magellanic Cloud object (Nova LMC 1990b) observed over several years by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) sky…
We present observations of the unusual optical transient SN 2010U, including spectra taken 1.03 days to 15.3 days after maximum light that identify it as a fast and luminous Fe II type nova. Our multi-band light curve traces the fast…
A continuous photometric study of 12 novae was carried out for more than 365 nights during the past 4 years at the Wise Observatory in a motivation to extend our knowledge on these systems. Main results: we found observational evidence for…
The central star V4334 Sgr (Sakurai's Nova) of the planetary nebula PN G010.4+04.4 underwent in 1995-1996 the rare event of a very late helium flash. It is only one of two such events during the era of modern astronomy (the second event was…
Excursions in the carbon-14 record measured in tree rings are attributed to various high energy but short-lived cosmic effects. So far, rapid changes at 774-775 CE, 993-994 CE and 660 BCE have been convincingly interpreted as due to rapid…
The discovery of the peculiar supernova (SN) 1998bw and its possible association with the gamma-ray burst (GRB) 980425$^{1,2,3}$ provide new clues to the understanding of the explosion mechanism of very massive stars and to the origin of…
RX J2309.8+2135 = 1RXS J230949.6+213523 is an X-ray source discovered through the ROSAT all-sky survey. The object was later identified with a star showing a spectrum resembling a cataclysmic variable (CV). Schwope et al. (2002,…
`Star G', near the center of the supernova remnant of Tycho's SN1572, has been claimed to be the ex-companion star of the exploding white dwarf, thus pointing to the progenitor being like a recurrent nova. This claim has been controversial,…
Oscillations observed in the light curve of Nova V1974 Cygni 1992 since summer 1994 have been interpreted as permanent superhumps. From simple calculations based on the Tidal-Disk Instability model of Osaki, and assuming that the accretion…
The discovery of a supernova emerging at late times in the afterglow of GRB 030329 has apparently settled the issue on the nature of the progenitor of gamma-ray bursts. We now know that at least a fraction of cosmological GRBs are…