What Is A Nova? Ancient Observers Of The Night Sky Thought It To Be An Amazing O

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Term Paper Title	What Is A Nova? Ancient Observers Of The Night Sky Thought It To Be An Amazing O
# of Words	784
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.14

What is a nova? Ancient observers of the night sky thought it to be an amazing occurrence in itself. These magically appearing stars were given the name nova, meaning new star, for lack of a scientific explanation. This mysterious oddity has started to unfold as technology has increased.
By definition, a nova is a star that increases its magnitude over a period of hours then goes back to its original state. The magnitude of a star is important because it represents its luminosity. Keeping this in mind, why would a star behave in such a manner? The answer would be in the mechanics of the system occurring.
Through increasing technology, we have been able to get a closer view. Astronomers have discovered that the phenomenon is related to binary star systems.
These systems consist of two or more stars that share a common center of mass which keeps them in constant gravity with each other. It is easier to understand the concept by using the example of how the moon orbits the earth. Although this example shows two solid masses, the same can occur with gaseous masses. At this point we have only scratched the surface. Now we must go inside the system to see what makes it tick.
We know that the stellar system is composed of two stars orbiting each other. In the beginning these stars form out of the same interstellar cloud but evolve at different rates. As the lifecycle of the stars proceed, one of the stars will become a white dwarf while the other is somewhere within the mainstream. This becomes the perfect environment for a nova to happen. The process begins within the Roche lobe (see figure 1), pear shaped regions around the stars in the binary system, the lobes define the space within each star’s gravity dominates.

The white dwarf siphons off matter from the companion star creating an accretion disc (see figure 2). The matter accumulates, and a thin layer of hydrogen forms on the surface of the white dwarf. The hydrogen eventually builds in pressure and heat causing a thermonuclear explosion that blows off the outer layers of hydrogen causing a rise in the light output from the system (see figure 3). This explains the increase in magnitude of the white ...

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