[vsnet-chat 7106] V838 Mon paper in astro-ph

[Taichi Kato]

V838 Mon paper in astro-ph

Paper: astro-ph/0506403
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 03:41:51 GMT   (53kb)

Title: Near-Infrared water lines in V838 Monocerotis
Authors: D.P.K. Banerjee, R.J. Barber, N.M. Ashok and J.Tennyson
Comments: 11 pages, 2 figures. Accepted in Ap.J Letters
\\
  V838 Monocerotis had an intriguing, nova-like outburst in January 2002 which
has subsequently led to several studies of the object. It is now recognized
that the outburst of V838 Mon and its evolution are different from that of a
classical nova or other classes of well-known eruptive variables. V838 Mon,
along with two other objects that have analogous properties, appears to
comprise a new class of eruptive variables. There are limited infrared studies
of V838 Mon. Here, we present near-infrared H band (1.5 - 1.75micron) spectra
of V838 Mon from late 2002 to the end of 2004. The principal, new result from
our work is the detection of several, rotation-vibration lines of water in the
H band spectra. The observed water lines have been modeled to first establish
that they are indeed due to water. Subsequently the temperature and column
densities of the absorbing material, from where the water absorption features
originate, are derived. From our analysis, we find that the water features
arise from a cool ~750-900 K region around V838 Mon which appears to be
gradually cooling with time.
\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0506403 ,  53kb)