FH Serpentis

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1970 Nova in the constellation Serpens

title: "FH Serpentis" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["novae", "serpens", "1970-in-science", "objects-with-variable-star-designations", "nova-remnants"] description: "1970 Nova in the constellation Serpens" topic_path: "general/novae" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FH_Serpentis" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 1970 Nova in the constellation Serpens ::

| name = FH Serpentis | image= |image=FHSerLocation.png|alt=|width=280 |caption=Location of FH Serpentis (circled in red) | epoch = J2000.0 | constell = Serpens | ra = | dec = | appmag_v = 4.5 Max. 16.8 Min. | class = | variable = Nova | radial_v = | prop_mo_ra = | prop_mo_dec = | parallax = 0.9512 | p_error = 0.0765 | parallax_footnote = | dist_pc = | absmag_v = | names = | Simbad = FH+Serpentis

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/FHSerLightCurve.png" caption="The [[light curve]] of FH Serpentis, plotted from [[AAVSO]] data. The local minimum in brightness around the end of May 1970 is a "dust dip", which occurs when dust forms as the expelled material expands and cools."] ::

FH Serpentis (Nova Serpentis 1970) was a nova, which appeared in the constellation Serpens in 1970. It reached magnitude 4.4. It was discovered on February 13, 1970 by Minoru Honda located at Kurashiki, Japan. Other astronomers later studied this nova, and calculated its distances based on the decay time of its light curves.

Nova Serpentis was also observed by the NASA space observatory OAO-2 Stargazer, active from 1968 to 1973.

The nova was important for science because it was one of the first to be observed in multiple wavelength bands including, infrared, visible, ultra-violet, and radio. One of the observations that stood out was that it became brightest in the infrared 100 days after it was first discovered.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/FHSerNebulaExpanding.png" caption="filters]], left at the [[New Technology Telescope]], and right with the [[Nordic Optical Telescope]]."] ::

A small emission nebula (shell) is visible around the star, which resembles a planetary nebula. Santamaria et al. examined images of the nebula taken in 1996 and 2018 and found that the shell is clearly expanding. It is slightly elliptical, with major and minor axes of 12.4×10.6 arc seconds (as of 2018) expanding at a rate of 0.125×0.109 arc seconds per year, implying a physical expansion rate of 630×540 km/sec.

References

References

  1. (1970). "Photoelectric Observations of Nova Serpentis 1970". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
  2. "FH Ser (Nova Serpentis 1970)".
  3. Joseph A. Angelo. (2014). "Spacecraft for Astronomy". Infobase Publishing.
  4. Templeton, Matthew. (23 January 2012). "FH Ser (Nova Serpentis 1970)". [[American Association of Variable Star Observers]].
  5. (July 2010). "Catalog of 93 Nova Light Curves: Classification and Properties". The Astronomical Journal.
  6. (March 2020). "Angular Expansion of Nova Shells". The Astrophysical Journal.
  7. {{Cite Gaia DR2. 4276984993803967744
  8. (2018). "The distances to Novae as seen by Gaia". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
  9. "FH Serpentis".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

novaeserpens1970-in-scienceobjects-with-variable-star-designationsnova-remnants