Hubble Space Telescope STIS Spectroscopy of Nova T Aurigae 1891

Abstract

T Aurigae is an eclipsing old nova which exploded in 1891. At a Gaia EDR3 distance of 815-871 pc, it is a relatively nearby old nova. Through ultraviolet spectral modeling and using the new precise Gaia distance, we find that the HST/STIS spectrum of T Aurigae is consistent with an accretion disk with a mass transfer rate $\dot{M}$ of the order of $10^{-8}{M}_{\odot }$/yr, for a white dwarf mass of $M_{\mathrm{wd}}\approx 0.7\pm 0.2M_{\odot }$, an inclination of $i\sim 60^{\circ }$, and a Gaia distance of of $840_{-25}^{+31}$~pc. The sharp absorption lines of metals cannot form in the disk and are likely forming in material above the disk (e.g. due stream disk overflow), in circumbinary material, and/or in material associated with the ejected shell from the 1891 nova explosion. The saturated hydrogen Ly$\alpha$ absorption feature is attributed to a large interstellar medium hydrogen column density of the order of $10^{21}$cm${}^{-2}$ towards T Aur, as corroborated by the value of its reddening $E(B-V)=0.42\pm 0.08$.

References in corpus (12)

• Gaia-2MASS 3D maps of Galactic interstellar dust within 3 kpc
• 3D maps of the local ISM from inversion of individual color excess measurements
• Three-dimensional mapping of the local interstellar medium with composite data
• Catalog of 93 Nova Light Curves: Classification and Properties
• Detailed Mid- and Far-Ultraviolet Model Spectra for Accretion Disks in Cataclysmic Binaries
• The Distances to Novae As Seen By Gaia
• Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of the Intergalactic and Interstellar Absorption Toward 3C 273
• Testing the disk instability model of cataclysmic variables
• A brief introductory guide to TLUSTY and SYNSPEC
• The regulation of galaxy growth along the size-mass relation by star-formation, as traced by H$\alpha$ in KMOS${}^{3D}$ galaxies at 0.7 < z < 2.7
• A UV and optical study of 18 old novae with Gaia DR2 distances: mass accretion rates, physical parameters, and MMRD
• A Far Ultraviolet Study of the Nova-like V794 Aquilae