BRIGHTEST NOVA APPEARS

The most luminous nova ever spotted has been observed in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Swift space observatory discovered it on 14 October 2016 but have only recently announced the find.

A nova occurs when an elderly white dwarf star steals material from a Sun-like companion star until it reaches a critical mass and bursts back into life. The white dwarf involved in this instance was close to its theoretical maximum mass, which may be why the resulting nova was so bright.