infrared observations of classical novae have established their importance as laboratories for studying astrophysical grain formation, and as contributors to abundance anomalies in the interstellar medium. studies of abundances in nova ejecta also provide information about nucleosynthesis in the white dwarf progenitor and in the thermonuclear runaway during a nova explosion. two key, virtually unexplored problems that our proposed iso investigations will address are the documentation of the detailed spectral energy distributions and the temporal characteristics of classical novae at wavelengths greater than 20 microns. this wavelength regime contains many forbidden lines from heavy elements that are useful for excitation and abundance studies. continuum emission and broad features at these wavelengths give information about dust. our choice of objects and scientific problems is designed to produce an understanding of fundamental differences between the early phase of the development of co and onemg novae. specifically, our proposed iso too initiative seeks to address five research problems in the study of classical nova evolution: 1) chemical abundances of nova ejecta from coronal and forbidden emission line spectroscopy; 2) studies of the nature of novae in the smc, lmc, and m31; 3) dynamical studies of nova ejecta; 4) measurements of the density and masses of the ejecta; and 5) determinations of the grain size distribution and mineral composition of nova dust. the criteria imposed by our science objectives in these areas require us to obtain iso observations of novae not contained in the iso central program. our iso too program will be supplemented by supporting observations that our iso team can obtain from ground-based, airborne, and orbiting facilities.
Instrument
SWS01 , SWS02
Temporal Coverage
1997-08-24T10:09:56Z/1998-03-01T19:27:39Z
Version
1.0
Mission Description
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was the world's first true orbiting infrared observatory. Equipped with four highly-sophisticated and versatile scientific instruments, it was launched by Ariane in November 1995 and provided astronomers world-wide with a facility of unprecedented sensitivity and capabilities for a detailed exploration of the Universe at infrared wavelengths.
