| Issue |
EAS Publications Series
Volume 71-72, 2015
The Physics of Evolved Stars: A Conference Dedicated to the Memory of Olivier Chesneau
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|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 23 - 28 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eas/1571004 | |
| Published online | 01 December 2015 | |
E. Lagadec, F. Millour and T. Lanz (eds)
EAS Publications Series, 71–72 (2015) 23-28
Olivier Chesneau's Work on Novae
Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR 7293, Université Côte d'Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, CNRS, Bd. de l'Observatoire, 06300 Nice, France
e-mail: fmillour@oca.eu
Olivier Chesneau founded a brand new field of observational astrophysics with his attempts to resolve the novae expanding fireball from the very first days of the explosion. With the images he could get, he showed that novae do indeed explode in an aspherical way, leading to a change of paradigm for the physics of these yet-poorly understood catastrophic systems. He also set the stage for a new way of estimating novae distances, by directly measuring the sky-size of the fireball and comparing it with spectroscopic scales, taking into account the tremendous effects of the fireball geometry.
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2015