Discovery of thirteen novae candidates in M87

Abstract

We have made thirteen positive identifications of near-ultraviolet (NUV) transient sources in the giant elliptical galaxy M87 using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We give a representative sample of the light curves that we derive for these transients, and based on their characteristics we identify them as classical novae candidates. We obtain a hard lower limit for the nova rate in M87 of 64 novae per year. Our results suggest an enhancement on the frequency of nova events towards the nucleus of the galaxy. No correlation is found with either jet activity or the position of present day globular clusters.

arXiv commentaccepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

References in corpus (7)

• The SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances. IV. SBF Magnitudes, Colors, and Distances
• The Globular Cluster System in the Inner Region of M87
• Hot Populations in M87 Globular Clusters
• Hubble Space Telescope Observations of Novae in M49
• An Erupting Classical Nova in a Globular Cluster of M87
• Modelling the nova rate in galaxies
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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Observations of Galactic and Extragalactic Novae
• Type Ia Supernovae Rates and Galaxy Clustering from the CFHT Supernova Legacy Survey
• A Hubble Space Telescope Survey for Novae in M87. I. Light and Color Curves, Spatial Distributions and the Nova Rate
• Exploring the Role of Globular Cluster Specific Frequency on the Nova Rates in Three Virgo Elliptical Galaxies
• The Rate and Spatial Distribution of Novae in M101 (NGC 5457)
• The Type Ia Supernova Rate in Radio and Infrared Galaxies from the CFHT Supernova Legacy Survey
• Simulation of a strategy for the pixel lensing of M87 using the Hubble Space Telescope
• A Hubble Space Telescope Survey for Novae in the Globular Clusters of M87