Optical interferometry and adaptive optics of bright transients

Florentin Millour (1) , Olivier Chesneau (1) , Anthony Meilland (1) , Nicolas Nardetto (1)

1 LAGRANGE - Joseph Louis LAGRANGE

Bright optical transients (i.e. transients typically visible with the naked eye) are populated mainly by novae eruptions plus a few supernovae (among which the SN1987a event). One bright nova happen every two years, either in the North ot in the South hemisphere. It occurs that current interferometers have matching sensitivities, with typically visible or infrared limiting magnitude in the range 5--7. The temporal development of the fireball, followed by a dust formation phase or the appearance of many coronal lines can be sudied with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. The detailed geometry of the first phases of novae in outburst remains virtually unexplored. This paper summarizes the work which has been done to date using the VLTI.

Domaines: Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]; Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]

Florentin Millour, Olivier Chesneau, Anthony Meilland, Nicolas Nardetto. Optical interferometry and adaptive optics of bright transients. Hot-wiring the transien Universe 3, Nov 2013, Santa Fe, United States. will be set by publisher. ⟨hal-01025483⟩