Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph)  ·  Contains:  PGC 200838  ·  PGC 200896  ·  RS Oph  ·  TYC5094-283-1  ·  TYC5094-61-1
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Star RS Oph Nova, Dale A Chamberlain
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Star RS Oph Nova, Dale A Chamberlain
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Description

RS Ophiuchi (RS Oph) is a recurrent nova system approximately 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. In its quiet phase, it has an apparent magnitude of about 12.5. It has been observed to erupt in 1898, 1933, 1958, 1967, 1985, 2006, and 2021 and reached about magnitude 5 on average. A further two eruptions, in 1907 and 1945, have been inferred from archival data. The recurrent nova is produced by a white dwarf star and a red giant in a binary system. About every 15 years, enough material from the red giant builds upon the surface of the white dwarf to produce a thermonuclear explosion. The white dwarf orbits close to the red giant, with an accretion disc concentrating the overflowing atmosphere of the red giant onto the white dwarf.

On August 8, 2021, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope corroborated optical observations made by K. Geary of a new outburst associated with RS Oph, with an estimated visual magnitude of 5.0. It reached a peak visual magnitude of approximately 4.6 the following day. (The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object)

The first image was taken on August 11, 2021, shortly after the explosion. When I presented this image, I intended to come back a month later to see if it had diminished in brightness. On September 9, 2021, I took the second image and put them into this animated gif file. You can see the star is much less bright.

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