A nova remnant is made up of the material either left behind by the gigantic explosion of a star in a nova, or from the bubbles of gas blasted away in a recurrent nova. It has an expansion velocity of around 1000 km/s, and has a lifetime of a few centuries. Considering their short lifetimes, nova remnants usually do not exist anymore by the time their light reaches us. Nova remnants are much less massive than supernova remnants or planetary nebulae.
Famous quotes containing the words nova and/or remnant:
“I’m a Nova Scotia bluenose. Since I was a baby, I’ve been watching men look at ships. It’s easy to tell the ones they like. You’re only waiting to get her into deep water, aren’t you—because she’s yours.”
—John Rhodes Sturdy, Canadian screenwriter. Richard Rossen. Joyce Cartwright (Ella Raines)
“I often wish for the end of the wretched remnant of my life; and that wish is a rational one; but then the innate principle of self-preservation, wisely implanted in our natures, for obvious purposes, opposes that wish, and makes us endeavour to spin out our thread as long as we can, however decayed and rotten it may be.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)