Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2015

trogen. The observed chemical composition and abundances of the different isotopes appear incompatible either with a typical nova scenario, or with a slow nova, or other known explosive processes, includ- ing the formation of plan- etary nebulae, which if in some cases they may re- semble the remnant of CK Vul as a result of their vague hourglass shape, they show, unlike such remnant, a marked abun- dance of oxygen and a less significant presence of ni- trogen. Also the mass of the material that makes up the expanding remnant (at least 1.2 solar masses) is excessive in relation to that generally accumulat- ed around it by a nova, as well as the excessively low brightness of the same remnant is incompatible with the average of known novae remains. Another difference com- pared to other remnants is the strong mole- cular emission at sub-millimetre waves from E vocative win- ter shot of the 100-metre diame- ter radio telescope of Effelsberg in Germany, used by Kami ń ski and col- leagues to observe the remnant of Nova Vul 1670 be- yond the sub-mil- limetre domain. [Max-Planck-Insti- tut für Radioastro- nomie] Left, an image of what re- mains of the nova, created by combin- ing the visible radi- ation of gas (blue, from the Gemini telescope) and sub-millimetre dust (yellow, from the SMA), and the molecular emission (red, from APEX and the SMA). [ESO/T. Kami ń ski]