By Ron Cowen
Imagine the blast of a nuclear bomb as heavy as Earth and you’ll get some idea of the energy unleashed in each of the six thermonuclear explosions that have ripped off the outer layers of a dense, nearby star in the past 108 years.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/6018.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
During the star’s most recent outburst, which occurred in February, astronomers obtained their sharpest look yet at this recurrent type of explosion, called a nova, as well as new insights into the most powerful of known stellar eruptions, the supernova.