Recent observation of Nova SMC 2016 with X-ray grating
ATel #9970; M. Orio (Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, USA and Padova Observatory, National Institute of Astrophysics, Italy), Thomas Rauch (Kepler Center for Astro and Particle Physics, Eberhard Karls University, Tuebingen Germany), Polina Zemko (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Padova University, Italy), and Ehud Behar, Department of Physics, Technion, Haifa, Israel
on 18 Jan 2017; 11:40 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Novae
Credential Certification: Marina Orio (orio@astro.wisc.edu)
Nova SMC 2016 (see ATel #9621, #9733) was observed again with the Chandra Low Transmission
Grating (LETG) coupled with the High Resolution Camera (HRC-S; see ATel #9810 for the previous
exposure) on 2017 January 4 for 28160 s. An average count rate of 11.55+-0.02 counts/s was
measured (average of both +1 and -1 orders), although the count rate during the exposure
had large oscillations, with variations by up to 45%.
The spectrum of the source can be approximately fit with a static white dwarf atmospheric
model with a higher effective temperature than in November (ATel #9810), about 750,000 K.
Deep absorption features of carbon and nitrogen are measure, blue-shifted by about 2100
km/s. The preliminary fit also indicates a very low column density, N(H)~2.5 10(20) cm(-2).
