#T Coronae Borealis

[logorrhea5mip]

As you might know, the sky is due to get a new star any time now, in a few months at most.

What is happening? The recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis, by far the brightest one known, is a star* in the northern constellation Corona Borealis that, once every 80 years or so, increases in brightness from completely invisible by naked eye to among the ~100 brightest in the night sky. This increase is called a nova, from the Latin word for new, as it looks like a new star has appeared.

Where can i see it from? Basically all human inhabited latitudes, all except the far south. In the northern latitudes, however it is visible the entire night, while near and below the equator you will need to 'catch' it at the right time of night, which in August and September is just after sunset.

How will it look? Let's not get your hopes up too high. It will, at the brightest, reach a magnitude around 2 at most, so about as bright as the north star, relatively unremarkable and completely unnoticeable as unique to someone who doesn't know where to look. But still, it's the most visible sudden change to the relatively fixed pattern of the heavens any of us will live to see, so you should still go give it a look.

Where is it? Currently, the constellation is best visible about 1 or 2 hours after sunset. You will need to be relatively far away from light pollution, so at least a couple dozen stars are clearly visible. While learning the constellations, and finding the star by orienting via those is imho half the fun, you could use one of many sky map apps and websites to tell you the star's location. If it didn't happen yet, there should be nothing visible at that location. However, if there is, congrats! You just did an astronomy™ :3

It will appear in the circle next to the star labeled ε

Why is this happening? Most stars spend most of their lives in a stable, hydrogen fusing state. However, when hydrogen in their cores begins to run out, they switch to helium fusion, which makes them swell up to enormous sizes, turn red due to lower surface temperature, and are thus called red giants. After this helium runs out, the star will (in most cases) throw off the inflated outer layers, while its hot, dense core shrinks and keeps on glowing due to how hot it is, while not actually doing any fusion and not producing any new energy. Those are called white dwarfs, and because they don't fuse, aren't technically stars at all, therefore the asterisk in the first sentence of this post. The T-CrBo system is a red giant and white dwarf binary, where the red giant has grown so big, that the parts of it closest to its partner aren't gravitationally bound to it anymore. Therefore, the gas falls and accumulates on the white dwarf's surface (which otherwise has no hydrogen on its own), untill a critical point is reached where the pressure of the gas causes it to all fuse at once, resulting in a huge thermonuclear explosion bright enough to be seen from over 2500 light years. The explosion however, isn't big enough to blow the dwarf apart, and it starts accumulating new matter from its partner right away. Because of this, it with re-explodes every 8 decades, and it is due to go any day now.

@green-mountain-goose @brightgreendandelions

[hoofclid]

[tenkuu-otoshi]

The stellar explosion in the T Coronae Borealis system is a rare phenomenon that happens every 80 years.

[blandandtasteless]

Hii im actually very informed about the whole t coronae borealis thing lol, no questions about that, but, just wanna appreciate a fellow astronomy nerd posting about it. Like i knew you existed from mutual mutuals but had no idea you were into this

So, ig, happy viewing

Also id add to the post that were also having the perseid meteor shower rn, so this is like the most interesting the night sky gets in centuries.

The post was getting long, and less coherent I feel as it got longer and longer. But yes, meteor shower! NOW!

The peak is TONIGHT and TOMORROW night!

Also, this sounds like blasphemy (because it is) but the perseids are lame, they happen every year, I wanna see this star blow up the exact moment it does.

[catilinas]

who else is hypedddddd

[prententiousjackal]

[wigmund]

T Coronae Borealis is a binary star system in the Northern Crown (Corona Borealis) constellation with a fairly regular nova cycle that is set to go off in the next few days.

[cosmicfocus]

Hidden In Plain Sight

A distant open cluster, plus an update on the imminent Blaze Star.

Open Star Cluster NGC 5823 Caldwell 88 in Circinus (and Lupus) An open cluster of relatively young and loosely gravitationally bound stars, born together in a nebula which is now no longer visible. Eventually, many of the component stars will separate from the group, going their own way on their first orbit around the Galaxy. The boundary between the constellations of Circinus and Lupus…

[davidaugust]

Star probably go boom by September. We we can probably see it just by looking up in the right place in the sky at the right time.

[nanuqsaurushoglundi]

update: that star still hasn't exploded

[maaruin]

Following the tag #t coronae borealis so that I don't miss when it goes supernova some times in the next weeks.

[kayrastune]

[junoshusband]

i've been keeping an eye on the blaze star that's gonna be visible in the skies sometime this year and every week or so there's another article saying Any Time Now, You'll See It! It's coming! It'll arrive soon! Keep An Eye Out! It's Soon!

i've been checking regularly since march

[historysurvivalguide]

New “Star” Alert

The Blaze Star (T Coronae Borealos) will be brightening to the point it will be visible to the naked eye for the first time since 1946

T Coronae Borealis, dubbed the “Blaze Star” and known to astronomers simply as “T CrB,” is a binary system nestled in the Northern Crown some 3,000 light-years from Earth. The system is comprised of a white dwarf – an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star with a mass comparable to that of our Sun – and an ancient red giant slowly being stripped of hydrogen by the relentless gravitational pull of its hungry neighbor.

The hydrogen from the red giant accretes on the surface of the white dwarf, causing a buildup of pressure and heat. Eventually, it triggers a thermonuclear explosion big enough to blast away that accreted material. For T CrB, that event appears to reoccur, on average, every 80 years.

[covenawhite66]

The event will occur because what is known as T Coronae Borealis with two stars a red giant and white dwarf.

The white dwarf star gravity pulls material from the Red Giant Star which causes the material to ignite and explode into a bright light.

The light from the Coronae Borealis is at a declination of 25 north, which means its visible for most of the year from Europe and North America. The exception is around September-November.