According to the scientists, the night sky will soon get a “new star” or nova after a “once-in-a-lifetime” explosion.
Although the explosion will not set the sky ablaze, it will give people a rare opportunity to see something they have never seen.
The new star will not be the brightening point of light, but the nova eruption will glow in the sky, nearly 3,000 light-years away from Earth.
A white dwarf star, which is orbiting a red giant, is expected to tear apart from its larger companion.
After enough mass collects on the surface of the white dwarf, the temperatures and rising pressures will lead to a blast which will be visible to the naked eye from the Earth. However, it will be visible for just a few days or a week.
Astronomer at the Universidad Nacional De Hurlingham in Argentina, Gerardo Juan Manuel Luna said, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We are in the right time, in the right moment, with the right instruments.”
The white dwarf and red giant are part of a binary system which is known as the T Corona Borealis, or T CrB.
According to astronomers, the supernova explosion can happen anytime between now and September.
The eruption of T CrB occurs every 80 years. It had last occurred in 1946.
The scientists now plan to see the nova in a better way than before. Multiple telescopes will be fixed at T CrB so as to decode the mysteries of the cosmic blast.
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“We hope to be able to answer questions with this object that then might be relevant to all the other accreting and eruptive white dwarfs,” said Jennifer Sokoloski, who is an astrophysicist at Columbia University.
Here’s how to spot the new star
The constellation Corona Borealis, which simply means “Northern Crown”, has seven stars positioned in an arc. It is positioned between the bright stars Arcturus and Vega and is visible high overhead during summer evenings in the Northern Hemisphere.
In the Southern Hemisphere, it appears close to the northern horizon. To locate the Northern Crown, trace an arcing line from the Big Dipper to Arcturus and then spot for semicircle of stars nearby to the east.
(With inputs from agencies)
Shambhu Kumar is a science communicator, making complex scientific topics accessible to all. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
