The evolution of Nova V382 Velorum 1999

¹ Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, Firenze, Italy e-mail: massimo@arcetri.astro.it
² European Southern Observatory; KarlSwarschildstrasse 2, Garching bei München, München, Germany e-mail: lpasquin@eso.org
³ California Institute of Technology MS: 220-6 1200 East California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA e-mail: daou@ipac.caltech.edu
⁴ Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, Firenze, Italy e-mail: massimo@arcetri.astro.it
⁵ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD, USA e-mail: wms@stsci.edu

Corresponding author: M. Della Valle, massimo@arcetri.astro.it

Received: 25 February 2002
Accepted: 22 April 2002

Abstract

We report results of spectroscopic observations of V382 Vel (Nova Vel 1999) carried out at La Silla between 5 and 498 days after maximum light (23 May 1999, V(max) ). The analysis of the photometric and spectroscopic evolution shows this object to be a fast nova belonging to the Fe II broad spectroscopic class. A distance of 1.7 kpc () is derived from the maximum magnitude vs. rate of decline relationship after correcting for the small reddening toward the nova, -. From the measured Hα flux and the associated rate of expansion we derive an approximate mass for the ejected shell, . We have also observed during the early decline a broad, short-lived (2 weeks) feature at 6705–6715 Å for which several identifications are possible, one of which is the lithium doublet at 6708 Å  and which could place an empirical limit on the lithium production that might occur during the outburst of a fast nova. The high luminosity at maximum, , and the relatively small height above the galactic plane ( pc) suggest that V382 Vel originated from a massive white dwarf, likely in the mass range 1.1–1.2 .