NASA predicts that the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis will explode sometime in 2024 in a rare event that could be visible to the naked eye.
The star system is located 3,000 light years from Earth.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know the timing of this as well as we know the eclipse,” NASA Meteoroid Environment Office lead Bill Cooke said.
“A typical nova consists of a star, like a red giant — a star bigger than the sun — and a white dwarf, which is a star about the size of the Earth,” Cooke said.
“And that red giant is dumping material on the surface of that white dwarf. They’re orbiting each other, and they’re real close together,” he said.
“When that happens, that white dwarf blows all that material out in space, and it gets very bright, hundreds of times brighter than what it was before,” Cooke said.
“And if it’s close to us or relatively close to us, we will see a new start to appear in our sky.”