Stargazers may soon get a rare, celestial treat.
A star system 3,000 lightyears away is ready to go nova — and when it blows, it will be visible from Earth.
T Coronae Borealis, a.k.a. Blaze Star, only explodes once every 80 years, appearing as a new star in the night sky for around a week.
“We expect that [T Coronae Borealis] will erupt any night now, any month now,” Bradley Schaefer, a Louisiana State University astronomer and Blaze Star specialist told Annie Jennemann of Hearst.
T Coronae Borealis — or “T CrB,” in astronomer lingo — is actually composed of two celestial bodies: an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star, a.k.a. “white dwarf,” and “an ancient red giant slowly being stripped of hydrogen by the relentless gravitational pull of its hungry neighbor,” according to NASA.
The hydrogen from the red giant builds up around its partner, accumulating pressure and heat like air in a balloon — only when this balloon pops, it creates a thermonuclear explosion that can be seen across the galaxy.
Out in space, the Blaze Star will shine thousands of times its original brightness, but to Earthlings it will appear as a new star in the sky about as bright as the North Star, known as Polaris.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers out there,” said NASA astronomer Dr. Rebekah Hounsell. “It’s incredibly exciting to have this front-row seat.”
But the Blaze Star is also a bit of a tease.
It was originally predicted to go off last June, but astronomers pushed their prediction to September.
Now, it could happen this month.
If it doesn’t miss the date, here’s how you can spot it yourself.
First, look toward the Northern Crown, a parabola-shaped constellation west of the Hercules constellation.
Then trace a straight line from the two brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere — Arcturus and Vega — which will lead them to the Hercules constellation and the Corona Borealis, where the dazzling Blaze will be most visible. It will look like a bright, new star has appeared in the sky.
Unfortunately, “recurrent novae are unpredictable,” according to NASA astrophysicist Koji Mukai, adding that just when scientists think they’ve nailed down its pattern, it can “deviate from it completely.”