Ultraviolet observation of nova LMC 2012 with STIS/HST
ATel #4106; S. N. Shore (U. Pisa); G. Schwarz (AAS); K. Page, J. P. Osborne (U. Leicester); S. Starrfield (ASU); F. Walter SUNY-SB); C. E. Woodward (U. Minn.); M. Bode (Liverpool John Moores U.); J-U. Ness (ESA)
on 10 May 2012; 08:57 UT
Credential Certification: S. N. Shore (shore@df.unipi.it)
Subjects: Ultra-Violet, Request for Observations, Nova, Variables
Referred to by ATel #: 4116
Nova LMC 2012 (ATel #4002, #4043) was observed with STIS on the Hubble Space Telescope on 2012 May 7 (MJD 56055) at three settings with medium resolution (E140M, E230M, with exposure times of 724 sec per setting) covering 1150 - 3000 A. There is only one strong emission line in the entire spectral range: N V 1240 (S/N ~ 15, 0.5 A binning, integrated (not dereddened) flux of 1.2E-13 erg/s/cm^2, FWZI ~ 7500 km/s); the blue wing is blended with Ly-alpha absorption (MW+LMC). The absence of other emission lines is consistent with the recent Swift and Chandra X-ray spectra (ATel #4092) that indicate an effective temperature of order 1 MK. Additional interstellar absorption lines at Si II/S II 1260 A, O I 1302 A, C II 1335 A are possible. The upper limit for peak flux of He II 1640 A
is < 1.e-13 erg/s/cm^2/A (not corrected for reddening). The luminosity in the interval 1180-3000 A
is ~800 (D_50)^2 L_sun, scaled to 50 kpc and using E(B-V)=0.2.
The next STIS/HST observation is planned for the window May 20 - Jun 1. Groundbased coverage is encouraged.
