Astronomers from Liverpool John Moores University have carried out photometric and spectroscopic observations of the recently discovered nova AT 2023prq. The results of this campaign, published in the November issue of the American Astronomical Society’s journal Research Notes, shed further light on the star’s properties. A nova is a star that suddenly increases in brightness and then slowly returns to its original state. This is a process that takes many months. Such emissions release enormous amounts of energy. This is the result of accretion into a close binary system containing a white dwarf and its companion star. AT 2023prq (also known as ZTF23aaxzvrr) was discovered in the Andromeda galaxy’s halo on August 15, 2023. Astronomers Michael Healy-Karesh and Daniel Perley from the University of Liverpool were among the first to observe AT 2023prq after its identification. They observed the nova until the end of August 2023 using the Liverpool Telescope (LT) and various other ground-based facilities.

AT 2023prq (also known as ZTF23aaxzvrr) was discovered in the Andromeda galaxy’s halo on August 15, 2023. Astronomers Michael Healy-Karesh and Daniel Perley from the University of Liverpool were among the first to observe AT 2023prq after its identification. They observed the nova until the end of August 2023 using the Liverpool Telescope (LT) and various other ground-based facilities. Observations by Healy-Kalesh and Perley showed that the absolute peak brightness of AT 2023prq was approximately -7.6. The distance from this nova to the Andromeda galaxy is expected to be approximately 150,000 light years. According to research, AT 2023prq has a very short cooldown of about 3.4 days. Scientists believe that this object may belong to the category of “weak and fast” novae. Additionally, spectroscopic observations of AT 2023prq reveal the presence of helium emission lines in the star’s spectrum and a relatively high emission rate from the hydrogen alpha emission line. These data suggest that AT 2023prq belongs to the helium/nitrogen spectroscopy class. In summary, the authors of this article concluded that AT 2023prq is a classic nova. In classical novae, the hydrogen-rich material accumulated from the donor eventually reaches a critical pressure and thermonuclear ejection occurs at the bottom of the accretion layer. During eruptions, these novae can reach absolute magnitudes of up to -10.5 magnitude. Researchers discovered that AT 2023prq is located relatively far from the Andromeda galaxy. Therefore, this observation confirms that AT 2023prq belongs to this galaxy’s halo.