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On Our Multi-Wavelength Campaign of the 2011 Outburst of T Pyx

2011; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 7; Issue: S285 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s1743921312001226

1743-9221

L. Schmidtobreick, A. Bayo, Y. Momany, V. D. Ivanov, Daniela Barría, Y. Beletsky, H. M. J. Boffin, Gabriel Brammer, G. Carraro, W. J. de Wit, J. H. Girard, G. K. T. Hau, Margaret M. Moerchen, D. Nuernberger, M. L. Pretorius, Th. Rivinius, Rubén Sánchez-Janssen, F. Selman, S. Štefl, I. Yegorova,

Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research

Abstract The well-known recurrent nova T Pyx has brightened by 7 magnitudes, starting on 2011 April 14, its first eruption since 1966. T Pyx is unique amongst recurrent novæ in being surrounded by a nebula formed of material ejected during previous eruptions. The latest eruption therefore offers the rare opportunity to observe a light echo sweeping through the existing shell, and a new one forming. The sudden exposure of the existing shell to high-energy light is expected to result in a change of the dust morphology as well as in the part destruction of molecules. We observe this process in the near- and mid-IR during several epochs using ESO's VLT instruments Sinfoni , Visir and Isaac . Unfortunately, in the data analysed so far we only have a tentative detection in Brα from the shell, so might in the end have to be content with upper limits for the emission from the various molecular bands and ionised lines.