Astronomers expect T Coronae Borealis, a nova 3,000 light-years away, to explode for the first time in almost 80 years.
T Coronae Borealis, known as the Star of Blaze, is a two-star system 3,000 light-years from Earth with a dead white star that "steals" pressure and heat from a nearby ancient red giant star.
This energy transfer will eventually cause a thermonuclear explosion that occurs approximately every 80 years, where the "nova" will become visible to the naked eye for a week or two before dimming again, euronews writes, according to Telegraph.
The final explosion is not a supernova, or the death of a star, because the dead star remains intact thereafter in a cycle that continues for tens or hundreds of thousands of years.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime event, giving young people a cosmic event they can observe for themselves, ask their own questions and collect their own data," said Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, research scientist specializing in nova events at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
NASA astronomers estimated that the explosion could happen by September 2024, but there is no evidence that it has happened so far.
As reported, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which is currently in low Earth orbit, will be the one to observe when the Blaze Star explodes, along with several other instruments such as the European Space Agency's (ESA) INTEGRAL telescope.
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