Eta Carinae (η Car) is an extremely massive binary system in which rapid spectrum variations occur near periastron. Most notably, near periastron the He IIλ4686 line increases rapidly in strength, drops to a minimum value, then increases briefly before fading away. To understand this behavior, we conducted an intense spectroscopic monitoring of the He IIλ4686 emission line across the 2014.6 periastron passage using ground-and space-based telescopes. Comparison with previous data confirmed the overall repeatability of the line equivalent width (EW), radial velocities, and the timing of the minimum, though the strongest peak was systematically larger in 2014 than in 2009 by 26%. The EW variations, combined with other measurements, yield an orbital period of 2022.7±0.3 days. The observed variability of the EW was reproduced by a model in which the line flux primarily arises at the apex of the wind-wind collision and scales inversely with the square of the stellar separation, if we account for the excess emission as the companion star plunges into the hot inner layers of the primary's atmosphere, and including absorption from the disturbed primary wind between the source and the observer. This model constrains the orbital inclination to 135°-153°, and the longitude of periastron to 234°-252°. It also suggests that periastron passage occurred on T 2456874.4 1.3

Aims. We determine the temporal evolution of the luminosity (L WD ), radius (R WD ) and effective temperature (T eff ) of the white dwarf (WD) pseudophotosphere of V339 Del from its discovery to around day 40. Another main objective was studying the ionization structure of the ejecta. Methods. These aims were achieved by modelling the optical/near-IR spectral energy distribution (SED) using low-resolution spectroscopy (3500-9200 Å), UBVR C I C and JHKLM photometry. Important insights in the physical conditions of the ejecta were gained from an analysis of the evolution of the Hα and Raman-scattered 6825 Å O vi line using medium-resolution spectroscopy (R ∼ 10 000). Results. During the fireball stage (Aug. 14. 8-19.9, 2013), T eff was in the range of 6000-12 000 K, R WD was expanding non-uniformly in time from ∼66 to ∼300 (d/3 kpc) R , and L WD was super-Eddington, but not constant. Its maximum of ∼9 × 10 38 (d/3 kpc) 2 erg s −1 occurred around Aug. 16.0, at the maximum of T eff , half a day before the visual maximum. After the fireball stage, a large emission measure of 1.0−2.0×10 62 (d/3 kpc) 2 cm −3 constrained the lower limit of L WD to be well above the super-Eddington value. The mass of the ionized region was a few ×10 −4 M , and the mass-loss rate was decreasing from ∼5.7 (Aug. 22) to ∼0.71× 10 −4 M yr −1 (Sept. 20).The evolution of the Hα line and mainly the transient emergence of the Raman-scattered O vi 1032 Å line suggested a biconical ionization structure of the ejecta with a disk-like H i region persisting around the WD until its total ionization, around day 40. On Sept. 20 (day 35), the model SED indicated a dust emission component in the spectrum. The dust was located beyond the H i zone, where it was shielded from the hard, > ∼ 10 5 K, radiation of the burning WD at that time. Conclusions. Our extensive spectroscopic observations of the classical nova V339 Del allowed us to map its evolution from the very early phase after its explosion. It is evident that the nova was not evolving according to the current theoretical prediction. The unusual non-spherically symmetric ejecta of nova V339 Del and its extreme physical conditions and evolution during and after the fireball stage represent interesting new challenges for the theoretical modelling of the nova phenomenon.

We report the first detection of hard (>10 keV) X-ray emission simultaneous with gamma rays in a nova eruption. Observations of the nova V5855 Sgr carried out with the NuSTAR satellite on Day 12 of the eruption revealed faint, highly absorbed thermal X-rays. The extreme equivalent hydrogen column density towards the X-ray emitting region (∼3 × 10 24 cm −2 ) indicates that the shock producing the X-rays was deeply embedded within the nova ejecta. The slope of the X-ray spectrum favors a thermal origin for the bulk of the emission, and the constraints of the temperature in the shocked region suggest a shock velocity compatible with the ejecta velocities inferred from optical spectroscopy. While we do not claim the detection of non-thermal X-rays, the data do not allow us to rule out an additional, fainter component dominating at energy above 20 keV, for which we obtained upper limits. The inferred luminosity of the thermal X-rays is too low to be consistent with the gamma-ray luminosities if both are powered by the same shock under standard assumptions regarding the efficiency of nonthermal particle acceleration and the temperature distribution of the shocked gas.

From 5.5 months of dual-band optical photometric monitoring at the 1 mmag level, BRITE-Constellation has revealed two simultaneous types of variability in the O4I(n)fp star ζ Puppis: one single periodic non-sinusoidal component superimposed on a stochastic component. The monoperiodic component is the 1.78 d signal previously detected by Coriolis/SMEI, but this time along with a prominent first harmonic. The shape of this signal changes over time, a behaviour that is incompatible with stellar oscillations but consistent with rotational modulation arising from evolving bright surface inhomogeneities. By means of a constrained non-linear light curve inversion algorithm we mapped the locations of the bright surface spots and traced their evolution. Our simultaneous ground-based multi-site spectroscopic monitoring of the star unveiled cyclical modulation of its He ii λ4686 wind emission line with the 1.78-day rotation period, showing signatures of Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) that turn out to be driven by the bright photospheric spots observed by BRITE. Traces of wind clumps are also observed in the He ii λ4686 line and are correlated with the amplitudes of the stochastic component of the light variations probed by BRITE at the photosphere, suggesting that the BRITE observations additionally unveiled the photospheric drivers of wind clumps in ζ Pup and that the clumping phenomenon starts at the very base of the wind. The origins of both the bright surface inhomogeneities and the stochastic light variations remain unknown, but a subsurface convective zone might play an important role in the generation of these two types of photospheric variability.

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