Contact: Mark Seibert
mseibert@ociw.edu
626-304-0273
Carnegie Institution

A Ghostly Shell Around a Binary Star System Suggests a Huge Nova Explosion

Caption: This composite near- and far-ultraviolet image from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) shows a ghostly shell around Z Camelopardalis (Z Cam), a double star system about 530 light years from Earth. The massive shell provides evidence that a huge “classical” nova explosion occurred a few thousand years ago. Z Cam is the largest white object in the image, located near the center; parts of the shell are seen as a lobe-like, wispy, yellowish feature below and to the right of Z Cam, and as two large, whitish, perpendicular lines on the left.

Credit: Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

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