(CNN) — According to NASA, astronomers expect a “new star” to appear in the night sky anytime between now and September, and it promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime celestial spectacle.
The long-anticipated stellar event, known as a nova, will occur in the Milky Way's Corona Borealis, or Northern Crown constellation, located between the constellations Boos and Hercules.
While a supernova is the explosive death of a massive star, a nova refers to the brief, sudden explosion of a collapsed star known as a white dwarf.
De Coronae Borealis, also known as the “blaze star”, is a binary system in the Corona Borealis that consists of a dead white dwarf star and an aging red giant star. Red giants form when stars run out of hydrogen for nuclear fusion and begin to die. In about 5 to 6 billion years, our Sun will become a red giant that will swell and expand as it sheds layers of material and vaporizes the inner planets of the Solar System, though Earth's fate remains unclear. , according to NASA.
Approximately every 79 years, T Coronae Borealis experiences an explosive event.
The stars in the orbiting pair are close enough to interact violently with each other. The red giant becomes increasingly unstable over time as it heats up, shedding its outer layers that descend as material onto the white dwarf star.
The exchange of matter gradually heats the white dwarf's atmosphere until it undergoes a “thermonuclear runaway reaction,” resulting in a nova, as seen in the animation below, the space agency said.
NASA Science Visualization Studio
Watching the changing sky
T Coronae Borealis last experienced an explosive outburst in 1946, and astronomers are once again keeping a close eye on the star system.
“Most novae happen unexpectedly, without warning,” said William J. Cook said in an email. “However, de Coronae Borealis is one of only 10 recurring novae in the galaxy. Since the last outburst in 1946, we know that the star can dim for more than a year before rapidly increasing in brightness. De Coronee Borealis began dimming in March of last year, so some researchers believe that between now and September Until is expected to be Nova, but uncertainty about when this will happen is months away, and that's all we know so far.
Located 3,000 light-years from Earth, the star system, normally too faint to be seen by the naked eye, is expected to reach a brightness similar to that of Polaris or the North Star.
Once a nova reaches its maximum brightness, it looks like a new star has appeared, visible for a few days without any equipment, and visible with a telescope for more than a week, before it fades and disappears from view for about 80 years. .
Nova appears in a small arc between the constellations Boötes and Hercules and is visible from the Northern Hemisphere.
The nova is expected to appear in the constellation Corona Borealis, also known as the Northern Corona. (pot)
Astronomers will observe the nova using the Hubble Space Telescope and study the celestial event with X-rays and ultraviolet light using the space-based Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
“Studying persistent novae such as T Coronae Borealis helps us understand interstellar mass transfer in these systems and provides insight into the thermonuclear runaway that occurs on the surface of a white dwarf as the star goes nova,” he said.
The NASAUniverse account on X, a social network formerly known as Twitter, will provide updates on the explosion and its origins.
Cook recalled that the last nova he saw in 1975, Nova Signi, had a brightness similar to that expected from De Coronae Borealis. Nova Signi is not expected to experience another eruption.
“I was a teenage astronomy enthusiast and I was about to start college, and on the night of August 29, I came out,” Cook said. “Looking at the sky, I noticed that the constellation Cygnus was irregular: there was a star that shouldn't be there. After enduring some comments from friends who I thought were crazy, I asked them to look and realized we were looking at Noah. It was a very memorable experience and reinforced my choice of astronomy as a career. “I joked that it took a star exploding to decide to pursue my graduate studies in physics.”
