Thread: exploding star?

Hello,
i don't know much about astronomy or the stars but i need to ask a question, hoping that someone can give me an answer. I live in Eastern Canada and was outside my home at around 11:30 p.m. looking up into the eastern night sky. I was staring at these two stars and all of a sudden one of the stars went very bright and then disappeared. It was like someone turning a flashlight on and off. Both the stars were approx. the same size and same brightness. I do not know what i saw? All i know is that it was bright enough for me to notice it and then it disappeared and never did come back. It looked like a star, it looked exactly like the star that was very close to it. Now......if it was a star?...should i have been able to see it explode? If anybody could give me some answers..I'm just very curious about what i saw. If it wasn't a star?..then what could it have been?

Usually an exploding star outshines all others in the area so I do not think you saw an exploding star, also known as a super nova. They just don't blink out, they really fire up and shine for a few weeks with quite a explosion.

A supernova's brightness goes down much more slowly than what you describe, and takes rather longer to increase in the first place. I think that something man-made is the likely cause.

You said you were looking East. I assume it was dark for you, but for very high objects, the West setting sun could probably still reflect off it. Given the right timing that could explain the flash you saw. I've seen that happen with low Earth orbit satellites before and it does make you think you might have just witnessed a UFO incident.

I have seen satellites in the sky at night. In fact I watch one in the western night sky fly by every single night. This was different. The object(star or whatever it was) was stationary. It wasn't moving. It went super bright and then disappeared. What the heck it was? I don't have a clue! Did I witness some UFO?.......I don't know?

Could an object obscure the star or did it reappear again that night or another night?

The next night I looked up at that very same spot and I could not see the object or star(whatever it was). It was gone....I did see the other star that was right beside it. It was still there. The object that I saw go super bright and then vanish...it never came back. It has been 4 nights now. Of course it is over cast tonight because of all the rain.....so I can't see anything tonight.

Did a celebrity suddenly decide to become a suicide bomber?

You know something....I don't know what it was. Whatever it was....I know what I saw. I watched a stationary light in the sky go brighter then any other light in the sky that night and then disappear. It was a very bright white light...it stayed bright for a half of a second.....then it was gone. It hasn't come back. It looked like one of the very small stars....same size and same brightness. well???? that was before it decided to warp out with its disappearing trick.

It could have been the light from a plane. They're quite bright, and if coming directly at you, would appear to be motionless. Turning away from you, it would appear to disappear.

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