Within the Northern Crown, a constellation that is 3,000 light years from Earth, T Coronae Borealis, often called T Cor Bor or T CrB, is expected to brighten the night sky sooner than expected.
T CrB is a recurring nova, or “a star that brightens due to a physical interaction between two stars in a binary system, one a red giant and one a white dwarf,” according to BBC’s Sky at Night Magazine.
The phenomenon, which occurs roughly every 80 years, has not occurred in most people’s lifetime. When the star dims, the cycle is expected to start again for another 80 years, marking this event as once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, according to BBC.
With professional and amateur astronomers awaiting T CrB’s appearance, Santa Clarita resident Rod Kaufman, chair of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society’s Light Pollution Committee, urges residents to be on the lookout in the coming weeks.
“Simply put, we’ve been awaiting the appearance of what is known as the Blaze Star, which T Coronae Borealis is commonly called, because it will brighten the magnitude to nearly that of Polaris, our North Star, and that will make it visible, even with a light-polluted sky, such as SCV,” Kaufman said. “T Coronae Borealis is actually a two-star system, and the larger one of the two is dumping a ton of stardust onto the smaller one, and that will cause it to erupt in a thermonuclear explosion.”
According to Kaufman, the brightening of the star will be visible for a week after its initial appearance.
“It could go off in hours, days, weeks, or months, but we now have indications that the system is giving off telltale emissions that have been detected by professional observatories, and they indicate the event will likely happen sooner rather than later,” Kaufman said. “So that’s why people across SCV, and both the amateur and professional astronomy world, are on this type of alert because it should be happening soon.”
Part of the T CrB’s mystery is figuring out when it will appear — the fun is in not knowing its precise timing of making an appearance, according to Kaufman.
“This event could very well be happening anytime within the next few weeks to the month from now, but it could be a bit later, it could be a bit earlier. There’s no precise way of predicting it. But that’s what makes it exciting — it could happen tonight, or it could happen next week or next month,” Kaufman said.
Kaufman, who has a master’s degree in musculoskeletal management and has been in a clinical setting within the field, has always taken a liking to skywatching and the events that occur in the sky. Kaufman encourages residents who are interested in seeing the nova to simply do one thing: look up.
“I want people to look up. Familiarize yourself with the night sky. Enjoy it. Try to be away from the lights of the city, if you can. The further you get from city lights, the better the view. The sky will be more prominent, the constellation will be easier to see, and a good pair of binoculars will help with its identification,” Kaufman said.
