Title: Breaking the Habit – The peculiar 2016 eruption of the remarkable recurrent nova in M31
Abstract:
Since its discovery in 2008, the Andromeda galaxy nova M31N 2008-12a has been observed in eruption every single year. This makes it the most extreme object in the new class of Rapidly Recurring Novae (RRN) – objects which show repeated eruptions within a ten-year time span. Such frequent eruptions indicate the presence of high mass accretion onto a white dwarf which is close to the Chandrasekhar mass limit, thereby making RRN promising candidates for the progenitors of type-Ia supernovae. The previous three eruptions of M31N 2008-12a have displayed remarkably homogeneous multi-wavelength properties. In contrast, the delayed 2016 eruption (in December last year) showed significant deviations from this pattern. In this talk, I will discuss the 2016 observing campaign and its results, together with possible interpretations on the physics and evolution of the system in the context of extragalactic nova science.