We might get to watch a new star explode into the sky in 2022

To look up into the night sky is to gaze deep, deep into the past. Light moves fast, but not fast enough for us to get an instantaneous peek at the cosmos. So when we look at some of the glowing balls of plasma that light up our sky, we're actually seeing them as they looked thousands of years ago. Even the light from our own sun is eight minutes old before it reaches Earth.