New findings have revealed strange details about a bright nova that appeared in June 2021.
While these events usually fade over a period of a few weeks or even longer, V1674 Hercules was remarkable because it went faint quickly, in just over a day. The previous fastest nova faded in a period of between two to three days, and in general rapid novas are rare.
But, the rapid fade wasn’t the only remarkable thing about this system, according to new research on the nova, which determined that the energy and light output of V1674 Hercules is reverberating like a rung bell. And the “wobble” — which occurs every 501 seconds and can be seen in both visible and X-ray light — continues a year after the initial explosion.
“The most unusual thing is that this oscillation was seen before the outburst, but it was also evident when the nova was some 10 magnitudes brighter,” Mark Wagner, an astronomer at Ohio State University and co-author on the new research, said in a statement. “A mystery that people are trying to wrestle with is; what’s driving this periodicity that you would see it over that range of brightness in the system?”
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