{"id":780798,"date":"2024-04-15T11:48:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T16:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=780798"},"modified":"2024-04-15T11:48:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T16:48:49","slug":"never-seen-an-exploding-star-this-year-youll-have-your-chance-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=780798","title":{"rendered":"Never seen an exploding star? This year, you’ll have your chance : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n An artist’s rendering shows the T Coronae Borealis star system, which contains a white dwarf and a red giant.
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Conceptual Image Lab\/Goddard Space Flight Center\/NASA<\/p>\n

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Conceptual Image Lab\/Goddard Space Flight Center\/NASA<\/p>\n

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An artist’s rendering shows the T Coronae Borealis star system, which contains a white dwarf and a red giant.<\/p>\n

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Conceptual Image Lab\/Goddard Space Flight Center\/NASA<\/p>\n

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Space enthusiasts, thank your lucky stars.<\/p>\n

Astronomers expect that this year you’ll be able to see the explosion of a star system in our Milky Way galaxy by simply looking up at the sky.<\/p>\n

Yes, we know you just spent all that time figuring out how to catch the solar eclipse.<\/p>\n

But the upcoming nova of the T Coronae Borealis star system is far less common, occurring roughly once every 80 years. A nova takes place when a small star suddenly and dramatically brightens for a short period.<\/p>\n

“Seeing that star blow up is much rarer than a solar eclipse,” NASA astronomer Bill Cooke told NPR. “So it’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”<\/p>\n