SOAR Spectroscopic confirmation of two Galactic classical novae: one new, one old
ATel #14413; A. Kawasah, J. Strader, E. Aydi, L. Chomiuk, K. V. Sokolovsky (MSU), P. Schmeer (AAVSO)
on 20 Feb 2021; 22:38 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Novae
Credential Certification: Adam Kawash (kawashad@msu.edu)
Subjects: Optical, Nova, Transient
We report spectroscopic follow up of Gaia21avt, the probable nova discovered by the Gaia Alerts system on 2021 February 18 (ATel #14402). We obtained a low-resolution spectrum of this object on 2021-02-19.4 using the Goodman spectrograph (Clemens et al. 2004, SPIE, 5492, 331) on the 4.1 m SOAR telescope, covering a wavelength range of 4800-8800 A. The spectrum shows broad emission lines of H-Balmer, O I, He I, N II, [O III], and [O II]. The FWHM of Halpha is around 1800 km/s. The spectrum resembles that of classical novae during the nebular phase, suggesting that the nova eruption began more than a month ago. The red continuum and the relatively strong O I line at 8446 A indicates that the nova is highly reddened and also raise questions about the possibility of a recent dust formation event in the nova.
We also report on spectroscopic follow up of the 2012 optical transient PNV J09410000-5759540, which was discovered by Nicholas J. Brown on 2020-02-13.12 UT (https://www.aavso.org/aavso-special-notice-292), but an identification spectrum was never obtained during eruption. On 2021-02-19.3, we obtained a spectrum that shows strong emission lines of Balmer (Halpha and Hbeta) and nebular [O III] lines, as well as, relatively weaker emission lines of [O II], [O I], and He I. Halpha shows a double peaked emission and is characterized by a FWZI of around 5500 km/s. The overall spectrum is that of a nova in the nebular phase, confirming that PNV J09410000-5759540 was a classical nova eruption.
This ATel is based on observations obtained at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, which is a joint project of the Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia, Inovacoes e Comunicacoes do Brasil (MCTIC/LNA), the U.S. National Science Foundation's National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU).
