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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Rare Nova Explosion Will Soon Bring a 'New Star' to the Night Sky--How to Catch a Glimpse
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-rare-nova-explosion-will-soon-bring-a-new-star-to-the-night-sky-how-to-catch-a-glimpse-180984186/At some point during the next several months, a distant, dead star will rapidly grow brighter in a powerful explosion, making it visible from Earth for a short period of time. To observers on the ground, it will look like a new star.
The dead starwhich is currently not bright enough to appear in the skyis one of a pair that orbit each other in a binary system called T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB. Known as a white dwarf, this leftover stellar core is snatching material from its neighboring red giant. When it gathers enough, roughly every 80 years or so, the white dwarf releases energy in a bright outburst, according to NASA.
Astronomers excitedly await the short-lived event. When T CrB goes off, a large fraction of every telescope in the world is going to be pointed at it, Bradley Schaefer, an astrophysicist at Louisiana State University, tells Scientific Americans Robin George Andrews.
T CrB is located 3,000 light-years from Earth. The astronomer John Birmingham observed its outburst from western Ireland two explosions ago, in 1866, according to Nicole Mortillaro of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Then, it flared up again in 1946. Theres also evidence that it was seen in 1787 and 1217, per the New York Times Robin George Andrews.
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A Rare Nova Explosion Will Soon Bring a 'New Star' to the Night Sky--How to Catch a Glimpse (Original Post)
Nevilledog
Apr 21
OP
Marcus IM
(2,275 posts)1. This, the comet, and the upcoming locust season ... clearly a sign from the big guy to vote for TSF.
(just in case...)
AllaN01Bear
(18,807 posts)2. interisting cutting.
Xavier Breath
(3,685 posts)3. Meh, I grew up in the '70s when Nova explosions weren't all that uncommon.
Hmm...on second thought, maybe that was the Pinto.
RipVanWinkle
(237 posts)6. I used to own a 1972 Ford Pinto.
4 speed, 4 cylinder engine.
Xavier Breath
(3,685 posts)7. My family and another (four adults and three kids)
drove to Canada one summer in a Pinto wagon. And I'm guessing none of us were wearing seat belts, either. Ah, memories of living on the edge.
ecstatic
(32,786 posts)4. I haven't seen stars in a long long time
I'm not sure if I've tuned them out or what. I see the moon and that's it.
GenThePerservering
(1,886 posts)5. Up here it has to get through the cloud cover nt