2024/08/12 by Krystian Iłkiewicz, Ilkiewicz, Krystian, J. Mikołajewska +5 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2408.06523
openalex publication_date 2024/08/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
RX Pup is a symbiotic binary which experienced a nova outburst in the 1970's. Here we report a discovery of a ~1300 year old nova shell around the system and a possible detection of a ~7000 year old nova shell. Together with the nova shell ejected in the 1970's this makes RX Pup the first system with three nova shells observed. This triad of eruptions suggests a change in the nova recurrence time. The most likely explanation is an alteration in the mass transfer rate attributed to evolutionary changes of the mass-donor in the system. Notably, comparative analyses with theoretical models indicate an increase in the average mass transfer rate by a factor of three over the past 10,000 years. This makes RX Pup a unique system, which allows us to probe millenium-scale evolution of mass transfer rates in binary systems.