The structure of a recent nova shell as observed by ALMA

High resolution ALMA observations of the recent (2.52 yr old) shell of Nova V5668 Sgr (2015) show a highly structured ionized gas distribution with small (10(15) cm) clumps. These are the smallest structures ever observed in the remnant of a stellar thermonuclear explosion. No extended contiguous emission could be found above the 2.5 sigma level in our data, while the peak hydrogen densities in the clumps reach 10(6) cm(-3). The millimetre continuum image suggests that large scale structures previously distinguished in other recent nova shells may result from the distribution of bright unresolved condensations.