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Rebirth of Novae as Distance Indicators Due to Efficient Large Telescopes

Massimo Della Valle·Roberto Gilmozzi
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Abstract

Nova outbursts are the result of strong thermonuclear runaways on the surface of a white dwarf accreting Hydrogen-rich material from a small mass companion. These giant explosions cause the star to increase its brightness by hundreds of thousands of times then making these objects powerful standard candles useful to measure the extragalactic distances.We have used the Very Large Telescope, located in the Chilean Atacama desert, to search for novae in NGC 1316--an early type galaxy in the Fornax cluster. We discovered 4 novae with 3h of observing time. The use of 8-10m class telescopes coupled with new detectors, can dramatically improve the efficiency of nova searches in extragalactic systems.

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Massimo Della Valle, Roberto Gilmozzi. 2002-06-04. Rebirth of Novae as Distance Indicators Due to Efficient Large Telescopes. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1070939

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