It was a good year for space science as Sumner Starrfield, an astronomer at Arizona State University, described what was to appear as a huge star exploding in the night sky, in a once-in-a-lifetime event this past fall. A binary star system in the constellation Corona Borealis, normally too dim to see with the naked eye, was set to carry on exchanges that would spark a runaway nuclear explosion, appearing as bright as the North Star.
