Forget Betelgeuse: there's a new supernova in town

V Sagittae may soon erupt in a nova that lights up the sky - even in daylight

- Jamie Middleton

A new supernova may soon light up our skies. An international team of astronomers have been studying a greedy white dwarf in a binary star system called V Sagittae, which is just 10,000 lightyears from Earth. It's burning unusually brightly as it speedily consumes its much larger companion star. In fact, it's stripping this stellar material so fast it can't handle all of it, creating a halo of shining gas which surrounds both stars.