Nova Aquila 1918
A brilliant nova was recorded on June 8 1918 at a time when
armies on the western front were engaged in a massive battle.
When first seen
it was of the 1st magnitude. Among the many early observers to see
the Nova was E Barnard who was in the state of Wyoming to watch an eclipse of
the Sun which had occurred a few hours earlier! Another early discoverer was a
young 17 year old Leslie Peltier who would go on to become America’s champion
comet hunter and variable star observer.
By the following day June 9th it reached a
magnitude of -1.4 and was rivalling Sirius the Dog Star as the brightest star
in the sky. It then slowly faded an would still just about be visible to the
naked eye in March 1919.
A nova is a binary system where one star is more hotter and
more massive than the other and pulls gas way from the larger although less
massive star, some of this gas will fall on the surface of the of the hotter
star this star then throws of a shell of gas representing about 0.1% of its
mass into space. We see this gas as the star gets brighter.
The term Nova is
Latin for ‘New’ several hundred years ago astronomers thought that the nova
they were seeing were stars being born.
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