TEMPORARY STARS
Reading edition
From time to time, stars have suddenly appeared in the heavens, where no star existed before! Such stars have usually become increasingly brilliant for a short period of time, and then as suddenly died away again, leaving no trace of their existence behind them. These “new stars” for long puzzled astronomers. The theory often advanced to explain them is that some distant star has “exploded,” and the increasing brilliance which we see is the result. If such were the case, its sudden dimming-down and disappearance would be quite intelligible—as would be its sudden appearance. A large number of such stars have now been recorded, and their existence is no longer in doubt. In some cases, they have remained visible for weeks or months before their final disappearance.