Discovery of an eclipsing dwarf nova in the ancient nova shell Te 11

Miszalski, B.; Woudt, P. A.; Littlefair, S. P.; Warner, B.; Boffin, H. M. J.; Corradi, R. L. M.; Jones, D.; Motsoaledi, M.; Rodríguez-Gil, P.; Sabin, L.; Santander-García, M.
Referencia bibliográfica

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 456, Issue 1, p.633-640

Fecha de publicación:
2
2016
Número de autores
11
Número de autores del IAC
3
Número de citas
30
Número de citas referidas
25
Descripción
We report on the discovery of an eclipsing dwarf nova (DN) inside the peculiar, bilobed nebula Te 11. Modelling of high-speed photometry of the eclipse finds the accreting white dwarf to have a mass 1.18 M⊙ and temperature 13 kK. The donor spectral type of M2.5 results in a distance of 330 pc, colocated with Barnard's loop at the edge of the Orion-Eridanus superbubble. The perplexing morphology and observed bow shock of the slowly expanding nebula may be explained by strong interactions with the dense interstellar medium in this region. We match the DN to the historic nova of 483 CE in Orion and postulate that the nebula is the remnant of this eruption. This connection supports the millennia time-scale of the post-nova transition from high to low mass-transfer rates. Te 11 constitutes an important benchmark system for CV and nova studies as the only eclipsing binary out of just three DNe with nova shells.