Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2015

4 STELLAR EVOLUTION 345 years after the appearance of a nova in Cygnus, a small team of astrono- mers has established that that event was most likely caused by the explosive fusion of two normal stars. The chemical and physical characteristics of the remnant left by the event are wholly suitable to a type of explosion halfway between those of classical novae and those of supernovae. Nova 1670, a mystery almost solved MAY-JUNE 2015