Nova
From Slackerpedia Galactica
Also, a white dwarf that ate too much for its own good, and has a bit of indigestion. The white dwarf draws material from (usually) a red giant secondary. The material builds up in an accretion disk around the white dwarf. In a classical nova, the disc eventually goes into outburst and most of the material is burned off. The star becomes very bright. Sometimes a very faint star can become bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Back in the day, people called it a nova, which means "new star".
After the outburst is over, material begins to accumulate on the white dwarf again. The cycle repeats itself until the red giant runs out of excess material and fails to fill its roche lobe. Typically, the time between outbursts can be from decades to centuries. It can also vary quite a bit. Predicting novae is a sketchy industry.
Novae should not be confused with a PBS television show of the same name, famous for its annual episodes about killer asteroids and melodramatic re-enactments of airplane crashes and insane scientists making discoveries.
