Astronomers are announcing the imminent arrival of a rare event: a nova may well be visible in our sky in the coming months. A star that is not currently accessible to us will then become easily visible to the naked eye.
In our sky, stars sometimes suddenly become very bright. The event lasts for a few days. The AstronomersAstronomers Then qualify the star in question as a nova. A name that comes from a time when it seemed new to the star the eyesthe eyes Observers and researchers have been observing the system, located about 3,000 light years from Earth, for some time, which they suspect will soon give us such an experience.
A white dwarf and a red giant to produce a nova
The system in question is what it is made of The red giantThe red giant and known as white dwarfs T corona borealis (T CrB). Both are heavier than our Sun. However, it turns out that unstable red giants eject matter regularly. White dwarfs, for their part, suck this stuff up to them. enough to cause uncontrolled thermonuclear reactions which then accelerate it brightnessbrightness of the system (mostly, no more than what can be observed for a Variable starVariable star very classic). there intensityintensity The system’s normal magnitude is 10, indicating a very low luminosity, even though in 2016, T CrB has nearly tripled in brightness—albeit without being visible to the naked eye.
The brilliance of that has already happened T corona borealis becomes thousands of times larger, making it visible to terrestrial observers. Once in 1866. Then in 1946. Thus a quick calculation gives hope that NovaNova Will appear again very soon. Especially since astronomers have reported that before the 1946 event, the star underwent significant attenuation. But they notice… that she has done the same.
A new North Star
So researchers estimate that we should expect to be able to observe the nova between February and September of this year 2024. T corona borealis Then increase to 2 only. ie its equivalent brightnessNorth NakshatraNorth Nakshatra. Everything will happen in a constellation called the Corona Borealis, which is a small arc of a circle that is quite easily recognizable.
