Explosive hydrogen burning of 17O in classical novae -: art. no. 081102

We report on the observation of a new resonance at E-R(lab)=190 keV in the O-17(p,gamma)F-18 reaction. The measured resonance strength amounts to omegagamma(pgamma)=(1.2+/-0.2)x10(-6) eV. With this new value, the uncertainties in the O-17(p,gamma)F-18 and O-17(p,alpha)N-14 thermonuclear reaction rates are reduced by orders of magnitude at nova temperatures. Our significantly improved reaction rates have major implications for the galactic synthesis of O-17, the stellar production of the radioisotope F-18, and the predicted oxygen isotopic ratios in nova ejecta.