For centuries, stargazers have seen the light of a new star in the sky. After a few days, it disappears.
Today we call the star system responsible T Coronae Borealis“T CrB” for short, or “Blaze Star.” It fires every 80 years, and NASA noted that Astronomers hope For the star to be visible around the summer of 2024. It is now 2025. What gives?
This repeating event occurs every 3,000 light-years the earth – Starts with two interacting, orbiting stars. An Earth-sized star is called a white dwarf (dense remnants of an explosion the sun-like a star) is ripping gas nearby Red supergiant star. Years pass, and an unprecedented amount of gas accumulates on the white dwarf’s surface. Under such extreme heat and pressure, the surface explodes in a violent thermonuclear reaction, called a nova.
But a proper deep space Prediction is difficult.
“We’re waiting for a ‘new’ star to appear briefly, but we don’t know exactly when it will. The star is pulling material from a companion star, and over decades it accumulates enough to explode, “NASA explained in a recent post. “But we don’t know how fast the stuff is piling up!”
The space agency added that “we have clues that it may explode soon, but ‘soon’ could mean today or next year!” (That’s “next year” as in 2026.)
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Although scientists had high hopes for the 2024 spectacle, the star’s modest behavior isn’t too surprising. We are still learning about these cosmic explosions.
Astrophysicist of NASA Dr. “Recurring novae are unpredictable and reversible,” Koji Mukai said in a 2024 statement. “Just when you think there could possibly be no reason why they follow a certain set pattern, they do – and as soon as you start relying on the same pattern repeating, they Totally deviate from it. We’ll see how TCRB behaves.”
How to see T Coronae Borealis when it erupts
Although the timing of T Coronae Borealis is not certain, astronomers know exactly where it will appear in the night sky. NASA explains:
What should a stargazer look for? The northern crown is a horseshoe-shaped curve of stars to the west of the constellation Hercules, ideally seen on clear nights. It can be identified by tracking the two brightest stars in the northern hemisphere – Arcturus and Vega – and a straight line from one to the other, which will lead skywatchers to Hercules and the Corona Borealis.
(In the summer months, the northern crown appears in the sky after sunset, making for ideal viewing.)
But you have to act fast. After the eruption and exposure, it will only be visible to the naked eye for less than a week, just as observers saw it long ago, during the Middle Ages, if not much earlier.
The location of T Coronae Borealis in the night sky.
Credit: NASA
If it behaves (typically) as expected, the exploded star will reappear in another 80 or so years, after a very large amount of stellar gas has settled on its surface.
then, boom.
