Stargazers around the world are bracing for a celestial event of remarkable rarity and beauty—a nova explosion from T Coronae Borealis, also known as the "Blaze Star." This extraordinary event, anticipated to occur sometime before September 2024, promises to be a breathtaking sight, visible to the naked eye despite its distance of 3,000 light-years from Earth.
T Coronae Borealis is a binary star system located within the Northern Crown constellation, a distinctive horseshoe-shaped cluster of stars positioned west of Hercules.
The system comprises a hot, red giant star and a cool, white dwarf star. As a recurring nova, it is known for its periodic explosive outbursts, which occur roughly every 79 to 80 years. The last such explosion was recorded in 1946, making the upcoming event particularly exciting for both amateur and professional astronomers.
According to NASA, when the nova erupts, T Coronae Borealis will become one of the brightest stars in the night sky, shining at a magnitude of +2.
For comparison, it will rival the brightness of Polaris, the North Star, which is typically one of the more prominent stars visible from Earth. The star system usually shines at a much dimmer magnitude of +10, making it invisible to the naked eye under normal conditions.
Bradley Schaefer, a physics and astronomy professor at Louisiana State University, describes the impending nova as a "once-in-a-lifetime" spectacle.
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