Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/08/after-the-eclipse-get-ready-for-a-once-in-a-lifetime-nova.html
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Energy vampires: celestial edition.
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God exploded it 3,000 years ago to show his support for ■■■■■.
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Just saw the eclipse here in San Francisco, using a pinhole projector made from an empty Trader Joes tissues box and a 0.5mm Pentel hole punch. Hole in the side, point it at the sun, look through the slot where the tissues come out.
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Another fun thing about T Coronae Borealis is that it’s a candidate to become a Type Ia supernova. Eventually it will accrete enough mass to initiate fusion in its carbon and oxygen core, which will blow the white dwarf apart and leave behind a cloud of glowing radioactive nickel visible for some time afterward. This probably won’t happen for quite a while, though.
Edit: The talk linked in the article mentions that a white dwarf that goes nova appears to lose mass, and it’s currently not clear how Type Ia supernovae happen since that requires a white dwarf to gain mass until it reaches the Chandrasekhar limit of about 1.4 solar masses.
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This articlehas some maps where to find them.
Coronal Borealis is that ‘U’ shaped constellation between Hercules and Bootes.
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Unfortunately, I would imagine that, unlike a solar eclipse, if someone were close enough to a nova to get a really good view of the event it would just about be guaranteed to be a “once in a lifetime event” just based on proximity.
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And this is the location of T Corona Borealis.
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So we’re just not sure of a set date when this happens were supposed to keep in mind that this should occur sometime in September. ext.
Question 2024 is only 78 years if it’s every 80 years wouldn’t it be in 2026 being the last one was 1946 ? I’m curious why this would be at least 2 years premature…
Its roughly every 80 years. Astronomera look at patterns of behavior, and in the case of T Corona Borealis it is exhibiting similar behavior to that seen before the last two eruptions.
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Astronomers are saying it could happen any time in the next several months, not September specifically. It’s currently showing the same changes in brightness that were observed a few months before the previous nova eruptions in 1946 and 1866.
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We’ve only got detailed observations of the two previous nova events for T Coronae Borealis as well as some suspected observations much earlier with much less detail, so there’s not yet enough information to make precise predictions. The binary has been observed closely enough between nova events to see that their orbital period is changing, and changes to a degree they haven’t been able to account for around the nova events as well.
This is a much longer and more detailed talk about T Coronae Borealis with more information on its observational history and, if you’re an amateur astronomer, what kinds of observations would be useful even to professional astronomers. It’s quite likely the upcoming nova event will be observed and confirmed by amateur astronomers first.
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