Once-in-a-lifetime star explosion, visible from Earth, could happen any day now (2024)

FAQs

Is there a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic explosion in 2024? ›

UNDATED (WKRC) - NASA has announced a "once-in-a-lifetime" cosmic explosion will be visible to Earth-dwellers sometime in 2024. Among the "Northern Crown", a seven star constellation in the Corona Borealis, is a dark spot with a lot of potential.

A "star" that hasn't been seen since 1946 will appear once again in the night sky, and astronomers are determined to get a glimpse of the once-in-a-lifetime event. The "star" is an explosion, also known as a nova event, that happens around once every 80 years.

“A star is 100 light years away from the Earth. If it explodes today, how much time will this explosion be visible to the people on the Earth?” If the explosion occurred today, it would mean that we would not see the explosion for roughly 100 years.

In the second half of 2024, a nova explosion in the star system called T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, will once again be visible to people on Earth. T CrB will appear 1,500 times brighter than usual, but it won't be as spectacular as the event in 1054.

Spaceflight in 2025 promises to follow the 2020s trend of record breaking orbital launches and increased developments in lunar, Mars and low-earth orbit exploration. The Artemis 2 mission is scheduled to carry four astronauts to perform a flyby of the Moon in 2025.

The star system is located in the Northern Crown, a horseshoe-shaped curve of stars west of the Hercules constellation, according to NASA, which reports viewers can look for it in between the bright stars of Vega and Arcturus.

This red supergiant has dimmed repeatedly in the past few years, which could mean that it's ready to go full supernova quite soon—and by “soon” we mean within the next 10,000 years. Actually, since it's some 500 light-years away, it's possible that it already exploded and we just don't know it yet.

For the first time, astronomers have observed the final days and death throes of a red supergiant star before its final collapse and massive explosion into a supernova. Supernovas are usually only detected after they happen, although a few of a different type have been caught in the act of exploding.

A recurrent nova, T CrB becomes visible about every 80 years after a thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf about 3,000 light years away.

It's not likely to happen now, but we do know that Betelgeuse will definitely explode as a supernova sometime in the next 100,000 years.

What is the closest star to explode? ›

The closest star to the Earth which could possibly become a Supernova is IK Pegasi, which is over a hundred and fifty light years away. At that distance we would see the star get brighter, but experience no other effects.

A red dwarf, which is half as massive as the sun, can last 80 to 100 billion years, which is far longer than the universe's age of 13.8 billion years. This long lifetime is one reason red dwarfs are considered to be good sources for planets hosting life, because they are stable for such a long time.

No. Stars are born, live, and die. This process is called the "life cycle of a star". Most of the time a star shines, it is in a stage of its life cycle called the main sequence.

The last supernova directly observed in the Milky Way was Kepler's Supernova in 1604, appearing not long after Tycho's Supernova in 1572, both of which were visible to the naked eye.

The American space agency NASA says a huge star explosion is expected to light up the night sky later this year. NASA describes it as a “once-in-a-lifetime” event. The event is known as a nova. It happens when changes to a star cause it to release a large amount of energy and it becomes very bright.

Experts in astronomy predict that T Coronae Borealis, popularly referred to as the "Blaze Star," will eventually come into daylight. A "once-in-a-lifetime" view is promised by this stellar event, which is situated 3,000 light-years away, as per the reports of Yahoo news.

In the second half of 2024, a nova explosion in the star system called T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, will once again be visible to people on Earth. T CrB will appear 1,500 times brighter than usual, but it won't be as spectacular as the event in 1054.

The last recorded outburst from T Coronae Borealis -- which includes a hot, red giant star and a cool, white dwarf star -- was in 1946, according to the space agency, which forecasts it will do so again before September 2024. T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) recurrent nova system, illustration.