3 wk. ago • 98%

A nova explosion may soon be visible in the night sky. Here's where and when to look

www.pbs.org A nova explosion may soon be visible in the night sky. Here's where and when to look

Keep an eye on the sky for the second half of 2024 and you might be able to witness a rare astronomical event. A space scientist explains how nova events work and where to look.

In the second half of 2024, a nova explosion in the star system called T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, will once again be visible to people on Earth. T CrB will appear 1,500 times brighter than usual, but it won’t be as spectacular as the event in 1054.

20 comments

never heard of these recurrent novae, got to look it up, sounds counterintuitive

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- You're thinking supernova, which happens only once. Novae were seen first as stars that would flare up, becoming a "new" star if it was too faint before to see. They are always a binary system, with the recurrent ones being a companion star that passes by periodically to deposit more material to flare up.
  
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  ah, i see, the word super makes all the difference here
  
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- Without reading the article, I imagine it’s a binary system where a white dwarf is siphoning gases from a star. When it reaches critical mass, it goes thermonuclear.
  
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  You are exactly right - how could this have possibly been a guess, lol.
  
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  I saw a video on this and this is pretty much how I remember it explained.
  
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- How is it counterintuitive? Gas builds up, goes boom, repeat.
  
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  Usually stars don't build up gas. This one is part of a binary system, though, so like the other comment says, it's siphoning matter from the other one.
  
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Ahh the event in 1054... Yeah that event was a banger!

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That was a very long article for so little "where and when to look".

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