NEARLY A NOVA

A pair of binary stars that orbit each other in just three hours has been discovered in the heart of a planetary nebula using new observations from the European Southern Observatory. The pair is so close they are almost touching. Their proximity means within the next thousand years they could undergo a nova eruption, where material from one star rapidly transfers over to the other. The resulting thermonuclear explosion creates a burst of light a million times brighter than the original stars.