Mon May 17, 2021 NOVAE AND SUPERNOVAE Supernovas are exploding stars. The last nearby supernova seen with the naked eye occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 160,000 LY away, in 1987. But a simple nova, while it represents a dying star, is not an exploding star. Novae are found in binary systems, where one star is still on the main sequence and the other has become a white dwarf. The white dwarf’s gravity is sufficient to pull gas off its companion, but the stolen gas doesn’t go straight onto the dwarf; instead, it spirals around, forming an accretion disc that surrounds the dying star....