In the coming days or weeks, the star T Coronae Borealis or Blaze Star is expected to be visible in the night sky. The appearance of a stellar explosion will be brief and bright, but it’s a sight enthusiasts won’t want to miss.
As a binary system, T Coronae Borealis or T CrB is not one star, but two: a white dwarf and a red giant. In short, when a main sequence star like our sun runs out of hydrogen in its core, it begins to collapse over billions of years.
When it is reduced to its core, it becomes a white dwarf, a dead star.
In orbit, the white dwarf collects the hydrogen from the red giant. A buildup of pressure and heat causes a thermonuclear explosion every 80 years, strong enough to travel 2600 years to reach our dimension.
The T Coronae Borealis nova, not a supernova, occurs only once in most people’s lifetime.
A once in a lifetime event for amateurs and researchers alike
T Coronae Borealis, 3,000 light-years from Earth, is a small constellation of seven stars normally invisible from Earth.
The approaching celestial event, however, does not concern the entire constellation, but rather the “Northern Crown”, the binary system within the group. The brightest star in the group is Alphecca.
The last T CrB nova was first recorded centuries ago, occurring in 1946. There are very few recurrent novae with short life cycles, and only one is powerful enough to reach us. This rare star show inspires amateurs and researchers alike.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers. It’s giving young people a cosmic event that they can observe for themselves, ask their own questions and collect their own data,” said Dr. Rebekah Hounsel, an assistant research scientist specializing in nova events at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“It will inspire the next generation of scientists.”
For space researchers, the explosion, as a close-in event, offers a rare window to “study the different wavelengths, hopefully providing data that will allow them to unravel the structure and specific processes involved.”
“We can’t wait to get a full picture of what’s going on,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hays, head of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA Goddard.
As technology has improved over the past 80 years, researchers will gain new insights into the life cycles of binary star systems and the waning but powerful stellar processes that drive them. This makes this T CrB nova particularly interesting.
NASA predicted that the T CrB nova would appear closer to September. However, a broader estimate suggests that the sighting could occur any time this year. The latest news, according to The guardseems to indicate that it could happen sometime in the next few days to weeks.
Once the explosion reaches us, the eruption will be short-lived. With the naked eye, the eruption will last less than a week. With binoculars, the eruption will be visible for about a week.
A short, bright glow: a week
For comparison, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, has a magnitude of -1.46, which in astronomy means it shines brighter than stars with positive magnitudes. T Coronae Borealis is invisible at magnitude +10, but becomes visible at +2, making it shine closer to the North Star, Polaris, according to Night sky.
Since the T CrB nova could happen any time now, NASA will continue to spread the word about the astronomical wonder. It will appear as a crown or semicircle near Bootes and Hercules.
First, BBC Sky at Night suggests locating the Plough star pattern and following the handle to find Boötes, who can be described as a kite forming a triangle with two stick legs.
From there, T Coronae Borealis should be bright. An astronomy app can help determine its position. And so can binoculars, an ideal prop. 2100 AEST is according to The guard.
Besides its brightness, the T Coronae Borealis comes with a Greek mythological story related to the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur. It represents the crown that Dionysus gave to Ariadne after Theseus abandoned her.
After her marriage to Dionysus, she threw the crown into the air and the jewels turned into stars.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Maria Mocerino Maria Mocerino is originally from LA and her work has been published in Business Insider, The Irish Examiner, The Rogue Mag, Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, and now Interesting Engineering.