NASA awaiting “once-in-a-lifetime” explosion that has not happened since 1946
An explosion will occur in the T Coronae Borealis system due to the interaction between a white dwarf and a red giant. An event that repeats every 80 years.
From now until September, astronomers around the world will set their sights on T Coronae Borealis. Also known as ‘Blaze Star’ which is a binary system located in the Northern Crown, about 3,000 light years from Earth, composed of a white dwarf (an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star, with a mass similar to that of the Sun) and an ancient red giant. The latter, however, is running out of hydrogen because of its ‘neighbor’.
When the time comes, the action between the two will cause an explosion, called a nova, that will be visible from Earth with the naked eye. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers out there, giving young people a cosmic event they can observe for themselves, ask their own questions, and collect their own data,” says research scientist Rebekah Hounsell. assistant specializing in nova events at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.
This event, known as a nova, refers to a brief explosion of a collapsed star known as a white dwarf, which remains intact and releases material in a repeating cycle that can last for years. And the last time this happened was 1946. Now, its behavior in the previous decade is similar to what occurred before the eruption at that time.
“There are a few recurrent novae with very short cycles, but typically, we don’t often see a repeated outburst in a human lifetime, and rarely one so relatively close to our own system. It’s incredibly exciting to have this front-row seat,” adds Hounsell in a NASA statement. Approximately every 80 years T Coronae Borealis suffers an explosive event.
Red giants form when stars exhaust their supply of hydrogen for nuclear fusion and begin to die. It is believed that, within about 5 or 6 billion years, the Sun will become a red giant, evaporating the planets of the solar system by releasing layers of material. As time goes by, these red giants are increasingly unstable due to their warming.
An 80 year cycle
The outer layers they shed end up as matter in white dwarf stars, which are close enough to interact with each other. Due to the exchange of matter, the white dwarf heats up until it experiences a thermonuclear runaway reaction, resulting in a nova. The first detection of an explosion in this system took place in the fall of 1217.
It was discovered by Burchard, abbot of Ursberg (Germany), who noticed “a faint star that for a time shone with great light,” indicates the NASA statement. Most novae occur unexpectedly, without warning. However, T Coronae Borealis is one of the 10 recurring novae in the galaxy. “We know that before it goes nova it dims for about a year, and T Coronae Borealis started dimming back in March 2023, so that’s why we think it’s going to go nova between now and the end of September,” William J. Cooke, director of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office told the BBC.
By the time the nova reaches its maximum brightness, it will be as if a new star has appeared, which will be possible to see for days without the need for any equipment. Then, its light will fade for another eighty years, when it will reappear in a small arc between the constellations of Boötes and Hercules.
NASA says that you can find the Northern Crown, which is a horseshoe-shaped curve of stars west of the Hercules constellation, by locating the stars Arcturus and Vega. These are the two brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere and part of the constellations Boötes and Lyra, respectively. Drawing a straight line between them will lead skywatchers to Hercules and the Corona Borealis.