White dwarf and nova star postcard

First results from a new NASA-funded scientific instrument at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii are helping scientists overturn long-standing assumptions about powerful explosions called novae and have produced the first unified model for a nearby nova called RS Ophiuchi. "We were getting ready for a routine engineering run when all of a sudden the nova went off. It was very bright and easy to observe, so we took this opportunity and turned it into gold," says team member Marc Kuchner of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. This artist rendering depicts the RS Ophiuchi binary system shortly after the white dwarf (right) has exploded as a nova. The other star is a red giant. Note the spiral dust lanes. Click image for enlargement. Credit: Casey Reed