Is the star dead?
Keep your eyes on the sky, stargazers: NASA has predicted that a much-anticipated “once-in-a-lifetime” stellar explosion — or nova — will be visible to the naked eye sometime this summer, according to a recent press release .
“It’s incredibly exciting to have this front row seat,” said Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, assistant research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The celestial event, called T Coronae Borealis, or “Blaze Star,” is located 3,000 light-years away and consists of a white dwarf, the Earth-sized remnant of a dead star. Meanwhile, the mass of the star cluster is similar to that of the Sun.
Also in the mix is ​​”an ancient red giant that is slowly being stripped of hydrogen by the relentless gravity of its hungry neighbor,” NASA described.
When enough hydrogen from a red giant accumulates on the surface of a white dwarf, it triggers a massive thermonuclear explosion that hurls the accumulated material into space in a blinding flash. The intergalactic phenomenon is not to be confused with a supernova, a similar cosmic burn that destroys some dying stars – instead of keeping them intact like a nova – and is often billions of times brighter than a nova.
In the case of the Blaze Star, this event appears to recur on average every 80 years and may repeat for hundreds of thousands of years.
This event is particularly significant due to its relative proximity to Earth. “There are a few recurring novae with very short cycles, but we don’t usually see repeated flares very often in human lifetimes, and rarely ones that are relatively close to our own system,” Hounsell said.
Unfortunately, the exact date of the interstellar fireworks display is not yet known, however this Death Star will reportedly be visible sometime this month. NASA estimates that the “brief” phenomenon will be visible to the naked eye for about a week.
Fortunately, amateur astronomers can optimize their chances of seeing the fleeting light show with a few tips.
First, they should initially look toward the Northern Crown, a parabola-shaped constellation located west of the constellation Hercules, Fox News reports.
They can then follow a straight line from the two brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere—Arcturus and Vega—to the constellations Hercules and Corona Borealis, where the Blaze of Glory will be most visible. It will look like a new star has appeared in the sky.
Unfortunately, “recurring novae are unpredictable,” says NASA astrophysicist Koji Mukai, adding that just when scientists think they’ve established a pattern, it can “deviate completely.”
“We’ll see how T CrB (the scientific name for ‘Blaze Star’) holds up,” he added.
Either way, Hounsell believes the event is “fueling the next generation of scientists.”
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers and give young people a cosmic event to observe for themselves, ask their own questions and collect their own data,” she said.