Nova - RS Ophiuchi (Prabhakaran)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph)

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Nova - RS Ophiuchi

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Nova - RS Ophiuchi

The recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi (RS Oph), located in the constellation of Ophiuchus, is in a rare outburst, it's first for more than 15 years. RS Oph brightened rapidly on 8 August 2021 from around magnitude +12 to shine presently at about magnitude +4.8, a 600-fold in just a day. This is its first outburst since February 2006 and only five other eruptions have been observed since 1898.

RS Oph is a cataclysmic variable star that’s further classified as belonging to a much smaller subset called recurrent novae. This is a very exclusive club, as there are just seven such systems. RS Oph is a binary star system, where a class M2 red giant star is losing material to a compact and dense white dwarf remnant. Every so often the white dwarf flings off this unwanted material in a nuclear blast, causing a huge and rapid brightening. Recurrent novae outburst occasionally between periods of tens to hundreds of years. Classical novae, such as the recent Nova Cas 2021 and Nova Her 2021, on the other hand, exhibit one massive eruption, or outburst, with the progenitor system brightening by between 8 to 15 magnitudes before slowly fading to its quiescence state.

Unlike classical novae, astronomers can predict with a good deal of accuracy RS Oph’s behaviour in the coming weeks and months, owing to the masses of good data accrued over its previous outburst. RS Oph is likely to decline by 0.1 magnitude per day for the next 40 days or so, and then fade more slowly, by around 0.02 magnitude in the next 65 days, by which time it should be back to its pre-outburst brightness.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4905261
PixInsight job	UZ31RIG653A3W1K5KZRX3WXXTH46WIZB
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	17h50m13s.312
RA (top/left)	17h51m29s.318
RA (top/right)	17h48m59s.999
RA (bottom/right)	17h48m57s.265
RA (bottom/left)	17h51m27s.130

Dec (center)	-06°42′22″.23
Dec (top/left)	-06°30′17″.66
Dec (top/right)	-06°29′28″.83
Dec (bottom/right)	-06°54′26″.20
Dec (bottom/left)	-06°55′14″.90

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Nova - RS Ophiuchi

Nova - RS Ophiuchi

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