Description
We describe observational evidence for a new kind of interacting binary star outburst that involves both an accretion instability and an increase in thermonuclear shell burning on the surface of an accreting white dwarf. We refer to this new type of eruption as a combination nova. In late 2000, the prototypical symbiotic star Z Andromedae brightened by roughly 2mag in the optical. We observed the outburst in the radio with the VLA and MERLIN, in the optical both photometrically and spectroscopically, in the far-ultraviolet with FUSE, and in the X-rays with both Chandra and XMM-Newton.
|