Lucky stargazers will soon get a treat not visible since our grandparents were teenagers:
A star system, located 3,000 light-years away from Earth, is predicted to become visible to the unaided eye soon. This could be a once-in-a-lifetime viewing opportunity as the nova ouburst only occurs about every 80 years. T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, last exploded in 1946 and astronomers believe it will do so again between February and September 2024.
Old men who saw the explosion in 1946 now waiting for it again eight decades later like:
The star system is normally "far too dim to see with the unaided eye," NASA notes, but with the nova explosion it will become about as bright as the North Star, easily visible to the naked eye for several days.
The space agency notes that the Coronae Borealis is "a small, semicircular arc near Bootes and Hercules." Here's a map for those who know their constellations:
This cyclical nova is "only one of five in our galaxy," NASA points out, because the conditions for such periodic explosions are quite rare:
This happens because T CrB is a binary system with a white dwarf and red giant. The stars are close enough that as the red giant becomes unstable from its increasing temperature and pressure and begins ejecting its outer layers, the white dwarf collects that matter onto its surface. The shallow dense atmosphere of the white dwarf eventually heats enough to cause a runaway thermonuclear reaction - which produces the nova we see from Earth.
It'll be neat to see! Don't miss it!
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