GQ Muscae, also known as Nova Muscae 1983 is a

nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

Musca, which was discovered by William Liller at 03:20 UT on 18 January 1983. At the time of its discovery it was a magnitude ≈7.2 object, and it subsequently faded. GQ Muscae is a binary star system composed of a white dwarf and small star, the donor star, that is about 10% as massive as the Sun. The two orbit each other every 1.4 hours. The white dwarf accumulates material from the donor star until a runaway nuclear thermonuclear reaction erupts, as it did in 1983. GQ Muscae was the first nova from which X-rays were detected.

References

Musca Muscae, GQ Novae {{Var-star-stub