Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- List of symbols
- 1 Novae: an historical perspective
- 2 Properties of novae: an overview
- 3 The evolution of nova-producing binary stars
- 4 Thermonuclear processes
- 5 Nova atmospheres and winds
- 6 Observational mysteries and theoretical challenges for abundance studies
- 7 Radio emission from novae
- 8 Infrared studies of classical novae
- 9 Optical and ultraviolet evolution
- 10 X-ray emission from classical novae in outburst
- 11 Gamma-rays from classical novae
- 12 Resolved nebular remnants
- 13 Dust and molecules in nova environments
- 14 Extragalactic novae
- Object index
- Subject index
1 - Novae: an historical perspective
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- List of symbols
- 1 Novae: an historical perspective
- 2 Properties of novae: an overview
- 3 The evolution of nova-producing binary stars
- 4 Thermonuclear processes
- 5 Nova atmospheres and winds
- 6 Observational mysteries and theoretical challenges for abundance studies
- 7 Radio emission from novae
- 8 Infrared studies of classical novae
- 9 Optical and ultraviolet evolution
- 10 X-ray emission from classical novae in outburst
- 11 Gamma-rays from classical novae
- 12 Resolved nebular remnants
- 13 Dust and molecules in nova environments
- 14 Extragalactic novae
- Object index
- Subject index
Summary
Introduction
Nova, abbreviated from stella nova, means new star (the plural form is [stellae] novae). Although the Merriam-Webster dictionary indicates its etymological origin to be in New (Renaissance) Latin, the term is in fact found in C. Plinius Secundus, Naturae Historia, Book 2, chapter XXIV, written around AD 75 (Pliny, 1855)
Idem Hipparchus … novam stellam in aevo suo genitam deprehendit; eiusque motu, qua die fulsit, ad dubitationem est adductus, anne hoc saepius fieret moverenturque et eae, quas putamus adfixas
The same Hipparchus discovered a ‘new star’ that appeared in his own time and, by observing its motions on the day on which it shone, he was led to doubt whether it does not often happen, that those stars have motion which we suppose to be fixed
although the somewhat obscure text would also permit an identification with a meteor or comet.
Because of the Aristotelian doctrine of the immutability of the translunar regions, such an object in the stellar regions would not fit into Aristotle's world view, and other objects now known to be translunar, such as comets, were considered to be atmospheric objects and logically discussed in his book on meteorology (and meteors do indeed belong in that book!).
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- Information
- Classical Novae , pp. 1 - 15Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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