3 ms·
Just past observations. If you’ve seen it go nova exactly every 80 years odds are it will do it again. Some nova are very regular, others can be unpredictable
by mr_toad 3y ago
Just past observations. If you’ve seen it go nova exactly every 80 years odds are it will do it again. Some nova are very regular, others can be unpredictable.
- dredmorbius 3y agoThat makes sense. As opposed to a main-sequence nova, in which a very-late-sequence star goes through the advanced burning phases, with fusion progressively of carbon, neon, oxygen, and finally silicon (to iron) occurs. The final stages of this occur quite quickly, on the order of months, weeks, days, and even hours, as I understand. Whether or not the burning phases can be astronomically observed and predicted I don't know, and was what inspired my question above. <https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept16/Rauscher/Rauscher4.html https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept16/Rauscher/Rauscher...> For a 25M star (one 25 times our Sun's mass), these phases last ~0.5 my (helium), ~600 years (carbon), 6 months (neon), 6 days (oxygen), and about a day (silicon). (More massive stars burn much hotter and faster than lighter ones.)