Beta Ceti

Immediately after sundown any clear night there apppears in the southwestern sky near the horizon a star of the first magnitude and of the brilliancy of Aldebaran. This is Beta Ceti, formerly on the outermost reaches of the known stellar system, a second magnitude star of the constellation of the Whale. Eighty years ago it suddenly flared up to double its brightness, a fact that our astronomers have just learned (since Beta Ceti is 80 light-years away).

Such sudden increase in brilliancy of fixed stars is not uncommon. Most astronomers believe that the changes are due to eruptions within each particular star, and that the sun spots we observe from time to time are similar, though trifling, eruptions within our sun. Since the stars that suddenly become twice as brilliant are supposed to be in about the same stage of development as our sun, the latter too might at any time flare up as the stars have done; and if it did, the intense heat would consume everything on earth as fiercely as an acetyline torch licks up a few blades of grass. This unpleasant assumption is based on mere conjecture. It is a known fact, however, that these variable stars eventually drop back to their original magnitude or brilliancy.