Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Naked Eye Nova Centauri 2013

NASA ^ | December 07, 2013 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Brightest stellar beacons of the constellation Centaurus, Alpha and Beta Centauri are easy to spot from the southern hemisphere. For now, so is new naked eye Nova Centauri 2013. In this night skyscape recorded near Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean southern Atacama desert on December 5, the new star joins the old in the expansive constellation, seen at early morning hours through a greenish airglow. Caught by nova hunter John Seach from Australia on December 2 as it approached near naked eye brightness, Nova Cen 2013 has been spectroscopically identified as a classical nova, an interacting binary star system composed of a dense, hot white dwarf and cool, giant companion. Material from the companion star builds up as it falls onto the white dwarf's surface triggering a thermonuclear event. The cataclysmic blast results in a drastic increase in brightness and an expanding shell of debris. The stars are not destroyed, though. Classical novae are thought to recur when the flow of material onto the white dwarf eventually resumes and produces another outburst.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Institution)]

[SunkenCiv]

This all started because of that laser. ;)

The Big One

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[Telepathic Intruder]

It’s somewhat inaccurate to say that all those interesting things Australians and other southern hemisphere dwellers get to see in the sky is a form of racism. It’s better termed as locationism.

[BenLurkin]

I never realized Alpha Centauri is that bright in the sky. But I guess it just makes sense considering that it’s not that far away.

[KarlInOhio]

I never realized Alpha Centauri is that bright in the sky. But I guess it just makes sense considering that it’s not that far away.

It's the third brightest star in the sky (or fourth if you are an annoying pendant who says the sun is the brightest), just ahead of Arcturus and Vega. Beta Centauri is number 11.

[KarlInOhio]

(or fourth if you are an annoying pendant

And if you are an annoying pedant, you might criticize me for calling you an annoying pendant. Deal with it. :-)

[BenLurkin]

It is beckoning to us.

[MUDDOG]

O Elbereth Gilthoniel!

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[SunkenCiv]

D#mned locationists!

[SunkenCiv]

Including the Sun, it’s also the third nearest to us (the second being Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf).

http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/nearest.html

[SunkenCiv]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurvandil#J.R.R._Tolkien

http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/cosmic/nearest_star_info.html

[Telepathic Intruder]

"D#mned locationists!"

I've known a few people from Australia and I said to one of them "So you get to see Alpha Centauri and the Magellanic Clouds". He said "What?" or something. "You know, in the sky... at night". "Oh, well I've never really looked at it". So we can add Cosmist to the list of charges.

[Verginius Rufus]

The four brightest stars are all south of the equator. That's not fair.

Of course we Northern Hemisphereans will get one of them back next March.