News: 11/02/2022: Invited speakers and panellists now listed

RS Ophiuchi is, perhaps, the most widely known recurrent nova. At peak, it reaches 5th magnitude and is thus a popular target for professional and amateur astronomers alike, and a wealth of observations can be acquired with a multitude of ground- and space-based instruments. As a leading SN Ia candidate, there is immense interest in understanding how each eruption affects the mass of the white dwarf: is it approaching the Chandrasekhar mass? RS Oph's recurrence period is about 15 years, with the most recent eruption taking place in August 2021.

The decade and a half since the previous RS Oph eruption has seen numerous observational breakthroughs such as (i) confirmation that novae are gamma-ray emitters by Fermi/LAT, (ii) detailed study of UV/X-ray light curves by Swift, (iii) high-resolution, high-cadence, X-ray spectra by XMM-Newton and Chandra, and (iv) new populations of fast and recurrent extragalactic novae. Similarly, state-of-the-art theoretical simulations have immensely advanced our understanding of the thermonuclear nova eruption, its panchromatic light curve evolution and the potential for ISM enrichment; and have presented tantalising evidence that white dwarfs of any composition can grow via the nova mechanism to the Chandrasekhar mass.

This Special Session at EAS 2022 aims at communicating to a large audience the broad impact of the nova phenomenon to other research fields; what we already know about nova outbursts in general; and what in particular we are learning from exceptional observations of two consecutive eruptions of RS Oph spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from radio to gamma rays.

Programme

All contributed talks are scheduled for 12 minutes plus an additional 3 minutes for questions.

Short poster talks (lunch session only) are scheduled for 2 minutes.

• Session 1: General introduction to RS Ophiuchi: previous eruptions; high energy and X-ray observations of the 2021 eruption
  Chair: Matt Darnley
• Session 2: X-ray and optical observations RS Oph's 2021 eruption
  Chair: Gloria Sala
• Lunch Session: Short poster talks and Panel-led discussion on the relationship between Recurrent Novae and Type Ia Supernovae, and future strategy
  Chair: Jan-Uwe Ness
• Session 3: Fireballs, shocks, and recurrent novae: the link to type Ia supernovae
  Chair: Alessandro Ederoclite

Invited speakers

• Solen Balman Istanbul University
• Mike Bode Liverpool John Moores University/Botswana International University of Science & Technology
• Yael Hillman Ariel University
• Jordi Jose Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya/Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya
• Paul Kuin Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL
• Steve Shore Università di Pisa

Scientific organisers

• Matt Darnley — Liverpool John Moores University (UK) — Chair
• Jan-Uwe Ness — European Space Astronomy Centre, Madrid (ESA) — Co-chair
• Kim Page — University of Leicester (UK) — Co-chair
• Solen Balman — Istanbul University (Turkey)
• Alessandro Ederoclite — Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (Spain)
• Stella Kafka — AAVSO (US)
• Elena Mason — Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste (Italy)
• Joanna Mikołajewska — Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
• Gloria Sala — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain)
• Steve Shore — Università di Pisa (Italy)
• Sumner Starrfied — Arizona State University (US)

Contact

M.J.Darnley @ ljmu.ac.uk