Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos science journalist
In the next few months, an explosion on a star 3,000 light-years away will grow so bright it should be visible to the naked eye.
The star system T Coronae Borealis, also named the Blaze Star, produces an explosion roughly every 80 years that yields a bright nova viewable from Earth.
The nova was last seen in 1946, and its next outburst is expected at any time between now and September.
Astronomers expect the star to be visible to the naked eye for a few days.
Dr Andrew Zic, a radio astronomer at CSIRO, says that novae are typically caused by thermonuclear explosions on the surface of white dwarf stars.
“They’re in an orbit around a giant star, typically a red giant, and they’re sucking in material onto their surface from that companion – they’re basically eating up this other star,” says Zic.
“Eventually, what happens is enough material is gathered on the surface of this white dwarf that it can’t hold it anymore, and so it blows up.”
While novae can occur as one-off events, astronomers also know of several recurrent novae from star systems that regularly accrue and eject material.
“We’ve been able to study a few of these sorts of systems before. But this one is exciting, because it’s one of the closest recurrent novae that we know of, and it will be visible to the naked eye,” says Zic.
How to see the Blaze Star when T Coronae Borealis explodes
You’ll be able to find the nova by looking for the constellation Corona Borealis.
In July and August, those of us in the Southern Hemisphere can see the constellation during evenings, low in the northern sky. There’s a wide range of stargazing apps that you can use to help find it.
NASA predicts the star will be as bright as a magnitude 2 star – in between the brightest and the dimmest members of the Southern Cross constellation.
After a few days of gleaming, the star will be harder to see, but still visible with a telescope or binoculars.
Astronomers excited for the burst
While he doesn’t have specific plans for the nova, Zic says that the explosion will be a good opportunity for radio astronomers to study a nova close-up.
“What we tend to find is the material that’s ejected from this explosion on the surface, basically slamming into the surrounding environment and the wind from the companion star. What you get from that is this radio emission that happens when that material slams into the environment and it gets shocked and heated up,” says Zic.
“We can get a really interesting probe into the various outflows from this massive explosion.”
The explosion is expected to generate reams of data on the binary star system.
“I mean, there’s nothing quite as exciting as waiting for something to blow up,” says Zic.