New stars, or temporary stars, we have already mentioned in connection with variables. They are, next to comets, the most dramatic objects in the heavens. They may be variable stars which, in a brief period, increase enormously in brightness, and then slowly wane and disappear entirely, or remain of a very faint stellar magnitude.
In the ancient historical records are found accounts of several such stars. For instance, in the Chinese annals there is an allusion to such a stellar outburst in the constellation of Scorpio, B. C. 134. This was observed also by Hipparchus and, no doubt, it was the immediate incentive which led to his construction of the first known catalogue of stars, so that similar happenings might be detected in the future. In November, 1572, Tycho Brahe observed the most famous of all new stars, which blazed out in the constellation Cassiopeia. In something over a year it had completely disappeared.
In 1604-1605 a new star of equal brightness was seen in Ophiuchus by Kepler; it also faded out to invisibility in 1606. Kepler and Tycho printed very complete records of these remarkable objects. The eighteenth century passed without any new stars being seen or recorded. There was one of the fifth magnitude in 1848, and another of the seventh magnitude in 1860; and in May, 1866, a star of the second magnitude suddenly made its appearance in Corona Borealis; and one of the third magnitude in Cygnus in November, 1876. The latter was fully observed by Schmidt of Athens and became a faint telescopic star within a few weeks. It is now of the fifteenth magnitude.
In 1885 astronomers were surprised to find suddenly a new star of the sixth magnitude very close to the brightest part of the great nebula in Andromeda; it ran its course in about six months, fading with many fluctuations in brightness, and no star is now visible in its position even with the telescope. Stars of this class are known to astronomers as Novæ, usually with the genitive of the constellation name, as Nova Andromedæ.
In 1891-1892 Nova Aurigæ made its spectacular appearance and yielded a distinctly double and complex spectrum for more than a month. Many pairs of lines indicated a community of origin as to substance, and accurate measurement showed a large displacement with a relative velocity of more than 500 miles per second. For each bright hydrogen line displaced toward the red there was a dark companion line or band about equally displaced toward the violet much as if the weird light of Nova Aurigæ originated in a solid globe moving swiftly away from us and plunging into an irregular nebulous mass as swiftly approaching us. Parallax observations of Nova Aurigæ made it immensely remote, perhaps within the Galaxy, and it still exists as a faint nebulous star.
In February, 1901, in the constellation Perseus appeared the most brilliant nova of recent years. It was first discovered by Dr. Anderson, an amateur of Glasgow, and at maximum on February 23 it outshone Capella. There were many unusual fluctuations in its waning brightness. Its spectrum closely resembled that of Nova Aurigæ, with calcium, helium, and hydrogen lines. In August, 1901, an enveloping nebula was discovered, and a month later certain wisps of this nebulosity appeared to have moved bodily, at a speed seventy-fold greater than ever previously observed in the stellar universe.
According to Sir Norman Lockyer's meteoritic hypothesis, a vast nebulous region was invaded, not by one but by many meteor swarms, under conditions such that the effects of collision varied greatly in intensity. The most violent of these collisions gave birth to Nova Persei itself, and the least violent occurred subsequently in other parts of the disturbed nebula, perhaps immeasurably removed. This explanation would avoid the necessity of supposing actual motion of matter through space at velocities heretofore unobserved and inconceivably high. A recent photograph of Nova Persei, by Ritchey, reveals a nebulous ring of regular structure surrounding the star. The great power of the 60-inch has made it possible to photograph even the spectra of many of the novæ of years ago which are now very faint. After the lapse of years the characteristic lines of the nebular spectrum generally vanish, as if the star had passed out of the nebula—a plunge into which is generally thought to be the cause of the great and sudden outburst of light. Many novæ have recently been found in the spiral nebulæ, especially in the great nebula of Andromeda.
