Thursday, August 5, 2010

The 22Na puzzle

There is this elusive gamma line at 1275 keV in 22Na, thought to come from novae in detectable amounts ... but it has not been observed! Why?
Are the models wrong?
Are the instruments not sensitive enough? ... this seems to be the most probable answer so far (i.e. a budget - related issue?)

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2 comments:

  1. Carlos, the chacalAugust 5, 2010 at 1:59 PM

    models is my bet. trust me. that is why they are called models.

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  2. Hendrik SchatzAugust 5, 2010 at 2:07 PM

    Roland is the expert, but I think the instruments are not sensitive enough for the distances at which novae exploded. So observations are consistent with the models. This does not imply that the models are right ... the upper limits on 22Na production are not that constraining I think. Need a next generation g-ray telescope ...

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