This is what an ‘incredibly exciting’ nova explosion would look like

A celestial body nicknamed the ‘Blaze Star’ (because it bursts into temporary brightness about every 80 years) is about to live up to its name with a sudden outpouring of light, astronomers say.

Officially known as the T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB for short, the Blaze Star is not a single object, but in fact a binary star system (two stars orbiting each other) located about 3,000 light-years from Earth.

Although the Blaze Star is usually too dim to see with the naked eye, experts say sky watchers should be able to see it suddenly light up as it becomes thousands of times brighter than normal. The rare event, called a “nova” (which means “new star” in Latin, because it appears as if a new star has suddenly appeared in the sky) will occur sometime before September, NASA astronomers believe.

Scientists use a comparative scale to describe how bright celestial objects appear on Earth. Somewhat counterintuitive: the brighter the object, the lower the number on the scale; the dimmer objects have higher numbers.

For example, the full moon shines at a magnitude of about -13, while the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, has a magnitude of -1.46, according to the BBC magazine Sky at Night.

In contrast, the Blaze Star is normally so weak that it usually only registers a paltry +10 reading. However, the nova will see its brightness level increase, pushing it up the scale to a new value of around +2. That’s about the same brightness level as the North Star, also known as Polaris.

The effect will last for several days before the star disappears into oblivion again.

The last time the event took place was in 1946, making the spectacle a “once in a lifetime event,” according to Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist specializing in nova events at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “There are a few recurring novae with very short cycles, but typically we don’t see a repeat eruption very often in a lifetime, and rarely one that is so relatively close to our own system,” she added. “It’s incredibly exciting to have this front row seat.”

The recurring nova occurs as a result of a reaction between the two stars that make up the Blaze system. One of the stars, known as a ‘white dwarf’, is gradually stripping hydrogen from its ‘red giant’ neighbour, causing a build-up of pressure and heat on the smaller star’s surface. Ultimately, this causes a thermonuclear explosion that seems to occur about every 80 years.

A nova is different from a “supernova,” the term for a massive star that explodes at the end of its life when it runs out of fuel. The Blaze Star’s nova event will leave the dwarf star intact, although the explosion will result in a blinding flash that will be visible as light to the human eye on Earth.

This cycle has been repeating for thousands of years, and the first recorded sighting of the T CrB nova was more than 800 years ago, in the fall of 1217, when a German monk, Abbot Burchard, noted that he had temporarily seen a normally faint star. shining “with great light.”

Astrophysical researchers will monitor the event to obtain as much scientific data as possible and will be able to use instruments and technology that did not exist in 1946 to measure the different wavelengths and processes involved.