Angular Expansion of Nova Shells

Abstract

Nova shells can provide important information on their distance, their interactions with circumstellar and interstellar media, and the evolution in morphology of the ejecta. We have obtained narrowband images of a sample of five nova shells, namely DQ Her, FH Ser, T Aur, V476 Cyg, and V533 Her, with ages ranging from 50 to 130 yr. These images have been compared with suitable available archival images to derive their angular expansion rates. We find that all the nova shells in our sample are still in the free expansion phase, which can be expected, as the mass of the ejecta is 7–45 times larger than the mass of the swept-up circumstellar medium. The nova shells will keep expanding freely for time periods up to a few hundred years, reducing their time dispersal into the interstellar medium.