‘It’s just a matter of time before it explodes’
A new star is set to appear in our sky any day now in a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ astronomical event.
Scientists are waiting with bated breath for T Coronae Borealis – also known as the Blaze Star – to light up the night sky for the first time since 1946, when it was last seen from Earth.
First spotted in 1217 in Germany, T Coronae Borealis is a dead star some 3,000 light years away that is visible from Earth when it reignites in a powerful explosion.
Astronomers had expected the star to appear in September, and are now waiting for its imminent explosion.
The star could be as bright as the North Star, and should be visible to the naked eye when it does reignite.
It is now simply a matter of time until the star explodes, and when it does, it will appear “1,500 times brighter than usual,” according to Space.com.
The website states: “It’s just a matter of time before the nova satiates its hunger and explodes into a spectacular nova.”
Although the explosion is imminent, there is no way of knowing when exactly it will take place, so astronomers are constantly watching the Blaze Star using NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray space telescope.
When it does explode, the star was appear brightly in the night sky for just a few days before it disappears for another 80 years.
Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist specialising in nova events at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in June: “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.
“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.”
Once it is visible, stargazers wil be able to spot T Coronae Borealis by locating the two brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere – Arcturus and Vega – and using them to form a straight line that points to the Northern Crown constellation.
“Typically, nova events are so faint and far away that it’s hard to clearly identify where the erupting energy is concentrated,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hays, chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at Nasa Goddard.
“This one will be really close, with a lot of eyes on it, studying the various wavelengths and hopefully giving us data to start unlocking the structure and specific processes involved. We can’t wait to get the full picture of what’s going on.”
