Extragalactic Novae

Extragalactic Novae: A historical perspective takes the reader on a journey chronicling the study of a class of eruptive variable stars known as "Novae Stella", Latin for "New Stars". These mysterious transient objects, now referred to simply as novae, have been recognized since antiquity, suddenly appearing in the night sky before slowly fading back into obscurity. The book reviews observations of extragalactic novae beginning with a discussion of their role in the discovery that the spiral nebulae were galaxies similar to the Milky Way, up through their recent contributions to our understanding of close binary star formation across differing stellar populations.