The Invisible Universe by Gerrit Verschuur

Author:Gerrit Verschuur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

9.5 Novae

The word nova means ‘new star.’ From time to time a new star seen with the naked eye does appear in our heavens. Such an event occurred in August 1975, when a nova appeared in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. Nova Cygni became as bright as the Pole Star and then faded away after 8 days. For years radio astronomers monitored the dying radio signals from the Nova Cygni outburst.

The nova experience is quite unlike that of a supernova. The latter is the complete destruction of a star, while the former is the mere shrugging off of an outer layer of gas in a relatively minor convulsion, but one that would destroy our planet’s atmosphere should the sun ever go nova, an unlikely event according to current theoretical knowledge of stellar evolution. Afterwards such a star may resume its normal existence or may repeat the process, in which case it is known as a recurrent nova. Radio emission from novae is produced in the ejected circumstellar envelope.

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