A Hubble Space Telescope Survey for Novae in M87. II. Snuffing out the Maximum Magnitude - Rate of Decline Relation for Novae as a Non-Standard Candle, and a Prediction of the Existence of Ultrafast Novae

The extensive grid of numerical simulations of nova eruptions of Yaron et al.(2005) first predicted that some classical novae might deviate significantly from the Maximum Magnitude - Rate of Decline (MMRD) relation, which purports to characterise novae as standard candles. Kasliwal et al. (2011) have announced the observational detection of... Show more