Аннотация:After 6 years of the Compton mission (CGRO) the COMPTEL telescope has achieved an MeV gamma-ray line sensitivity of about 10-5 photons/(cm2s). At this level of sensitivity quite high expectations can be placed on the detection of the predicted 22Na gamma-ray line from nearby novae. Classical novae provide an environment in which hydrogen-burning reactions proceed on CNO and heavier nuclei at high temperatures. For such conditions astrophysically significant fluxes of the 22Na gamma-ray line at 1.275 MeV are expected. The present understanding is that the nova shell expelled by the thermonuclear runaway shoul be transparent to 1.275 MeV line emission a few days after the nova explosion.
We have used the COMPTEL database to improve previously published limits for the sodium production by neon novae in the Galaxy, and to constrain the recent theoretical predictions of nova yield.