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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: Novas -- cause?
Message-ID: <1950@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 7-Oct-85 11:51:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1950
Posted: Mon Oct  7 11:51:55 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Oct-85 06:07:18 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 14

There are a lot of popularized books around these days on cosmology, the
Big Bang, black holes, etc. One practically invariant feature of these
books is that they describe the process by which a star of given mass
evolves, and how it will end up as a red dwarf if it is small enough, a
white dwarf if it is of a certain size range, and a supernova and black
hole if it is large enough. There seems to be no mention anymore,
though, of "ordinary" novae -- just supernovae.

What is the current astronomical thought regarding the cause(s) of a
star going nova? (NOT supernova, just nova.)

Will Martin

UUCP/USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin   or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA