The international scientific and amateur community is excitedly preparing this summer to witness a rare intergalactic phenomenon. It is a not goinga explosion arising from the interaction between two stars which from Earth will result in a small burst of light at a point in the night sky. It is difficult, or almost impossible, to predict the exact date on which it will occur, but it is estimated that it will be between June and September of this year.
The stars that will cause this phenomenon are a white dwarf and red giant which, together, are called T Coronae Borealis or, with a much catchier name, the Burning Star (‘Blaze Star’). These two stars make up a binary system located at 3,000 light years of our blue planet. This phenomenon happens once every century, approximately, being the last time in the 1946.
Rebekah Hounsellresearch assistant at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and specialist in nova events, assured that it is “a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create many new astronomersoffering young people a cosmic event that They can observe for themselves, “ask your own questions and collect your own data.” Hounsell is sure that this event will awaken the curiosity of girls and boys who want to dedicate themselves to investigating outer space.
How is this explosion created?
The system is composed of a white dwarf star (the leftover material from size of the earth of one dead star with a mass comparable to that of our Sun) and a ancient red giant star that is slowly being stripped of hydrogen for the relentless gravitational attraction from his hungry neighbor.
He hydrogen of the red giant it accumulates on the surface of the White dwarfcausing a pressure and heat buildup. Over time, it triggers a thermonuclear explosion big enough to blow up that accumulated material. This explosion is of gigantic magnitude and the light that will emit on this occasion it will become visible from Earth this summer.
What is there to look for in the sky?
The Corona Boreal It is a constellation formed by a curve of stars horseshoe shaped west of the constellation Hercules. It can be identified by locating the two brightest stars in the northern hemisphere, Arcturus and Vega, and following a straight line from one to the other. Right in the middle are Hercules and the Boreal Crown.
The explosion caused by the nova will be brief. Once it erupts, it will be visible to the naked eye for a short time. less than a weekalthough experts assure that it will be quite a spectacle worth to watch. “Exist few recurrent novae with short cycles, usually It is not possible to see a repeated explosion in the duration of a human lifeand even stranger it is to witness one so relatively close of our own system,” Hounsell said. “It’s incredibly exciting to have this front row seat“.
Opportunity to investigate
This event offers a unique opportunity to better understand the structure and dynamics of recurrent stellar explosions. Scientists around the world plan analyze this intergalactic event in depth and bring out new conclusions regarding the dynamics of the stars. The technological advances in sky observation, such as new image capture systems with Gamma rays or new telescopes with X-rayswill allow measurements to be taken that could not have been obtained before.
