HARRISBURG (TNS) — A “once-in-a-lifetime-event” is brewing in the far reaches of space at the moment.
In a complete blaze of glory, a new star will form.
Space.com reports how the Corona Borealis — a constellation that’s about 3,000 light-years away from our great blue planet — is currently home to a star known as T. Coronae Borealis that’s been dead for quite some time.
This deceased star, according to the same Space.com article, is what’s called a white dwarf — a celestial body defined by NASA as a very hot version of what stars like our Sun become “after they have exhausted their nuclear fuel” — is currently “eating,” so to speak, the material from a red giant that’s close by. When it gets its fill (just to keep with the eating metaphor), the star will explode and create an “outburst” which will form into a nova, an “apparently ‘new’ star…that slowly fades over weeks or months.”
“[This is] a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers out there, giving young people a cosmic event they can observe for themselves, ask their own questions, and collect their own data,” said Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist specializing in nova events at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., via NASA. “It’ll fuel the next generation of scientists.”
Original predictions as to when this explosion was to occur were tentatively placed the cosmic event during the summer. Alas, summer has waxed and waned, and the nova still hasn’t occurred.
That being said, CNET states that it’s expected to happen soon.
However, those who are keeping a sharp eye to the sky should be aware that the explosion may not look like much of anything when it occurs, although the star will remain bright in the sky for about a week or so after it’s formed.
