Mysterious Object CK Vulpeculae: Wide-field view | Digitized Sky Survey 2

Mysterious Object CK Vulpeculae: Wide-field view | Digitized Sky Survey 2

This wide-field view shows the sky around the location of the historical exploding star CK Vulpeculae (in the constellation Vulpecula) that European astronomers saw in 1670. The remains of the nova are only very faintly visible at the center of this picture.

The star was not a typical nova, but may have been a much rarer, violent breed of stellar collision. A nova is a sudden and dramatic increase in the brightness of a star. CK Vulpeculae was spectacular enough to be easily seen with the naked eye during its first outburst, but the traces it left were so faint that very careful analysis using submillimeter telescopes is required.

Distance to Earth: ~10,000 light years

Models suggest CK Vulpeculae may not be a classic nova; rather it may be classified as a luminous red nova that is the result of two main sequence stars colliding and merging. A 2018 study found it was most likely the result of an unusual collision of a white dwarf star and a brown dwarf star. However, a 2020 article ruled out this proposed mechanism and proposes that CK Vulpeculae is an intermediate luminosity optical transient (ILOT), another type of object in the luminosity gap between supernovae and novae.

The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a ground-based imaging survey of the entire sky in several colors of light produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute through its Guide Star Survey group.

Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin
Release Date: July 30, 2018

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