| Issue |
A&A
Volume 532, August 2011
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | L11 | |
| Number of page(s) | 4 | |
| Section | Letters | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201117440 | |
| Published online | 03 August 2011 | |
Letter to the Editor
U Scorpii 2010 outburst: observational evidence of an underlying ONeMg white dwarf⋆
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI),
3700 S. Martin Dr.,
Baltimore,
MD
21218,
USA
e-mail: emason@stsci.edu
Received: 8 June 2011
Accepted: 18 July 2011
This paper presents U Sco nebular spectra collected in the period March–May 2010 after the binary outburst on Jan. 28, 2010. The spectra display strong [Nev] and [Neiii] lines that can be used to compute the relative abundance of [Ne/O]. The value obtained ([Ne/O] = 1.69) is higher than the typical [Ne/O] abundance found in classical novae from CO progenitors and suggests that U Sco has a ONeMg white-dwarf progenitor. It follows that U Sco will not explode as a SN Ia but rather collapse to become a neutron star or a millisecond pulsar.
Key words: novae, cataclysmic variables / stars: individual: USco
© ESO, 2011
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