ASU astronomer contributes to study revealing clues about century-old stellar cold case (opens in new tab)

More than a century after a spectacular stellar explosion lit up the night sky above the constellation Perseus, NASA’s newest space telescope, SPHEREx, has uncovered something no one expected: The ancient nova GK Persei is surrounded by a previously unknown envelope of molecular hydrogen, the most abundant molecule in the universe, stretching roughly 8-by-5 light-years across.