The impending nova explosion will be so bright that people on Earth will be able to see the burst of light with the naked eye, NASA scientists said.
According to NASA, about 3,000 light-years from Earth, there is a remnant of a dead star with a mass comparable to that of the Sun that is about the size of Earth and is expected to explode at some point this summer.
The exact date when that will happen is unclear, although NASA is keeping track.
The spectacular explosion is a “once-in-a-lifetime event,” says NASA nova specialist Rebecca Hounsell, “and it will create many new astronomers and give young people the opportunity to make their own observations, ask their own questions and collect their own data.”
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An image of the impending nova that NASA scientists predict will be visible to the naked eye from Earth this summer. (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)
Hounsell is an assistant research scientist specializing in nova phenomena at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
She looked at the events of that summer at “Blazestar” from a historical perspective.
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“While there are some novae that have very short periods, they typically do not occur repeatedly during a human lifetime, and they rarely occur relatively close to our solar system,” she said in a statement.
“I’m really excited to have a front row seat.”
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson spoke during a visit to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on November 5, 2021. (Olivier D’Uglier/AFP via Getty Images)
This is a nova phenomenon, Hounsell explained, and is different from a supernova, which is the “final giant explosion” that destroys a dying star, NASA said in a press release.
In this particular event, the dwarf star will remain intact, but its “accumulated material” will be blasted into the depths of space in a “blinding flash of light,” according to NASA. This cycle will repeat itself over time, and could last for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, NASA explains.
3 tips from NASA for American astronomers
1. According to NASA, the light burst will be “brief,” but is expected to be visible to the naked eye for just under a week.
2. Prepare for the unexpected. As of mid-June, the exact time of the nova is unknown.
“The recurrence of novae is unpredictable and retrograde,” says Koji Mukai, another astrophysicist at NASA Goddard. Even when scientists think they’ve pinpointed a pattern, the nova “can completely deviate from it.”
“We’ll see how T CrB (the scientific name for ‘Blazestar’) behaves,” he said.
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A nova is a white dwarf that absorbs gaseous material from a nearby star, suddenly becoming very bright and then returning to its original brightness. (QAI Publishing/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
3. It can be hard to know where to look.
NASA suggested that we first identify the northern crown of stars (see image below), a horseshoe-shaped curve on the western side of Hercules, as our starting point.
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The two brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere (Arcturus and Vega) form a straight line from one to the other, leading stargazers to the constellations Hercules and Corona Borealis, where the bursts of light are best seen.
“All summer, look up at the sky after sunset to find Hercules, then scan the area between Vega and Arcturus and you might see the distinctive pattern in Corona Borealis,” NASA said.
A conceptual drawing of how NASA will search for the constellation Hercules to see this summer’s phenomenon: “Look up at the sky after sunset during the summer to find Hercules, then scan between Vega and Arcturus and you may see the distinctive pattern of Corona Borealis,” NASA said. (NASA)
Two facts about the history of “Blaze Star”
1. According to NASA, the first recorded sighting of a “Blaze Star” nova occurred in the fall of 1217, when a German scientist noticed “a faint star that emitted an intense light for some time.”
2. According to NASA, the “Blaze Star” nova was last observed from Earth in 1946.
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To put it in perspective, that was two years before the invention of the Frisbee, jukebox, and Velcro.
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Check out: NASA’s Nova Animation
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Elizabeth Hayes, director of NASA’s Goddard Astroparticle Physics Laboratory, said scientists will monitor the event “from peak to decline as the visible energy of the explosion fades.”
“It is equally important to have data during the early stages of the eruption, so the data collected by dedicated citizen scientists currently monitoring the nova will contribute greatly to our findings,” Hayes said in a statement.
