A New High Star is About to Be Visible With the Naked Eye

A New High Star is About to Be Visible With the Naked Eye

As eclipse fans still ride high from last year's total solar eclipse, astronomers are gearing up to witness another once-in-a-lifetime celestial event: A star 3,000 light years away is expected to brighten significantly enough to be visible with the naked eye.new high star The so-called Blaze Star, also known as T Coronae Borealis, has been slowly getting brighter over the past few months. By September, it should reach a magnitude +2 -- that's about as bright as Polaris, the North Star.

Asteroseismology, a technique that detects oscillations in massive stars by measuring the changes in radial velocity of their photospheres, will be key to tracking this development (see the video below).new high star Asteroseismic measurements from the K2 mission, which had a long time base and precision, have already been used to characterize pulsation modes, rotation, mass-loss rates, surface gravity, and angular momentum transport mechanisms in a variety of low- and intermediate-mass post-main sequence massive stars, including b Cep stars (Pope et al., 2017; Aerts et al., 2019a).

The Blaze Star has a history of exploding.new high star Its two most recent explosions occurred in 1866 and 1946. Each one followed a similar pattern: The star first got somewhat brighter, then dimmed again ten years before the explosion. This is the same pattern that's observed in this case, and it suggests that the Blaze Star is on the verge of a big bang.

In the lead-up to a supernova, the inner core of the star collapses until the forces between its nuclei can no longer hold it together.new high star The core then rebounds, creating an enormous shock wave that blasts outward into the surrounding material. This material is ejected into the cosmos, enriching future molecular clouds and potentially forming new stars.

As the blast waves from this latest explosion spread, the outer layers of the star will expand and disperse into a blue-white halo, which will eventually fade to nothing as the star cools down.new high star The remaining core will then rebound, possibly forming a black hole or neutron star.

The Blaze Star is a hulking giant that has an orbital period of 1.new high star 7 years, which means it's about halfway through its life cycle. The next supernova isn't expected for another 50 years or so, but when it does happen, the Blaze Star will brighten a hundred times more than it currently is -- that's enough to be visible with the naked eye from Earth. In anticipation, astronomers are analyzing the data from telescopes around the world, including the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) and ESA's Gaia satellite. They're looking for the telltale signs of a big explosion, such as rapid expansion and the sudden drop in brightness caused by the shock wave. These signs will indicate whether this is the beginning of a new supernova or an explosive remnant from an older one. The results will be announced this fall.