Chandra X-ray grating observation of Nova LMC 2012
ATel #4092; Marina Orio (INAF, Padova, Italy and University of Wisconsin, USA), Ben Tofflemire (University of Wisconsin, USA), and Jim Truran (University of Chicago, IL, USA)
on 4 May 2012; 20:26 UT
Credential Certification: Marina Orio (orio@astro.wisc.edu)
Nova LMC 2012 was observed with Chandra on April 26 2012 for
about 20,000 s, with the LETG grating and the HRC camera.
The X-ray spectrum shows an extremely hot white dwarf continuum, the hottest
ever observed for a nova in outburst. The effective temperature slightly
exceeds one million K. There are also strong superimposed emission lines of high
ionization stages of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and iron. The nova appears
to be close to the Eddington luminosity (10^38 erg/s)
and the added +1/-1 order count rate is 2.529+-0.221 counts/s. The count
rate showed a gradual increase to a 25% higher level in the last 5,000 s
of the observation.
