A new approach to generate a catalogue of potential historical novae

Abstract

Ancient Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese observers left us records of celestial sightings, the so-called `guest stars' dated up to $\sim 2500$ years ago. Their identification with modern observable targets could open interesting insights into the long-term behavior of astronomical objects, as shown by the successful identification of 8 galactic supernovae (SNe). Here we evaluate the possibility to identify ancient classical novae with presently known cataclysmic variables (CVs). For this purpose, we have developed a method which reconsiders in detail positions and sizes of ancient asterisms, in order to define areas on the sky that should be used for a search of modern counterparts. These areas range from a few to several hundred square degrees, depending on the details given in ancient texts; they should replace the single coordinate values given by previous authors. Any appropriate target (CVs, X-ray binaries etc.) within these areas can be considered as a valid candidate for identification with the corresponding ancient event. Based on the original descriptions of several hundred old events, we selected those without movement and without a tail (to exclude comets) and which did not only visible within a certain hour (to exclude meteors). This way, we present a shortlist of 24 most promising events which could refer to classical nova eruptions. Our method is checked by applying it to the known SN identifications, leading to a margin of error between 0 and 4.5 degrees, meaning that some SN remnants lay exactly inside the areas given by the historical reports while in some other cases they are laying at considerable distances.

19 pages, 6 tables, 9+7 figures

References in corpus (3)

• When does an old nova become a dwarf nova? Kinematics and age of the nova shell of the dwarf nova AT Cnc
• Which information can we derive from historical Far Eastern guest stars for modern research on novae and cataclysmic variables?
• On the possibilities of classical nova identifications among historical Far Eastern guest star observations

Cited by in corpus (9)

• New Insights into Classical Novae
• The Simulated Sky: Stellarium for Cultural Astronomy Research
• Bow-shocks, nova shells, disc winds and tilted discs: The Nova-Like V341 Ara Has It All
• The Path from the Chinese and Japanese Observations of Supernova 1181 AD, to a Type Iax Supernova, to the Merger of CO and ONe White Dwarfs
• Cataclysmic variables as possible counterparts of ancient Far Eastern guest stars
• A Search for the modern counterparts of the Far Eastern guest stars 369 CE, 386 CE, and 393 CE
• A Search for recurrent novae among Far Eastern guest stars
• The remnant and origin of the historical supernova 1181AD
• Identification of Z Cam's Historical Counterpart: The Quest for an Ancient Nova