This summer, astronomers will focus on one small constellation deep in the night sky. CNN reports on the celestial event:
“Astronomers are expecting a ‘new star’ to appear in the night sky anytime between now and September in a celestial event that has been years in the making, according to NASA.
“’It’s 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, Maryland, in a statement. ‘It’ll fuel the next generation of scientists.’
“The expected brightening event, known as a nova, will occur in the Milky Way’s Corona Borealis, or Northern Crown constellation, which is located between the Boötes and Hercules constellations.
“While a supernova is the explosive death of a massive star, a nova refers to the sudden, brief explosion from a collapsed star known as a white dwarf. The dwarf star remains intact, releasing material in a repetitive cycle that can occur for thousands of years.
“’There are a few recurrent novae with very short cycles, but typically, we don’t often see a repeated outburst in a human lifetime, and rarely one so relatively close to our own system,’ Hounsell said. ‘It’s incredibly exciting to have this front-row seat.’
“T Coronae Borealis, otherwise known as the ‘Blaze Star,’ is a binary system in the Corona Borealis that includes a dead white dwarf star and an aging red giant star. Red giants form when stars have exhausted their supply of hydrogen for nuclear fusion and begin to die. In about 5 billion or 6 billion years, our sun will become a red giant, puffing up and expanding as it releases layers of material and likely evaporating the solar system’s inner planets, although Earth’s fate remains unclear, according to NASA.”
To read the entire CNN article, click HERE.