The brightest nova since 1975 appeared in the constellation Cygnus
last week, near the bright star Deneb. Discovered on 18 February by an amateur
astronomer in Colorado, Nova Cygni 1992 reached magnitude 4.2, making it
easily visible to the naked eye in dark areas. Novas are explosions on the
surfaces of binary stars, and are much fainter than more catastrophic supernovas.
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