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Artist’s depiction of the expected nova. Gif: NASA Visualization Studio ===================================================================================== T Coronae Borealis, a binary star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth, is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. And if the recurring nova follows its usual pattern, we can expect to see a new, albeit temporary, star appearing in our night sky any day now. The moderator of a citizen scientist group I belong to recently emphasized, “T CrB remains our highest priority target every night.” His urgency is understandable; our “Cosmic Cataclysms” group needs to be on the lookout for the expected nova, gathering data before,...

In the coming months, the world is set to witness an extraordinary celestial event as a massive explosion in the T Coronae Borealis star system is poised to create a “new star” in the night sky. This rare astronomical event, expected to occur between now and September 2024, is not the birth of a star but rather an extraordinary nova outburst from T Coronae Borealis (T CrB), situated 3,000 light-years away in the constellation of Corona Borealis. NASA described the anticipated nova outburst as a “once-in-a-lifetime viewing opportunity” as T Coronae Borealis is predicted to become as bright as the...

In 1217, a German monk looked to the starry southwest sky and noticed a normally faint star shining with unusual intensity. It continued to blaze for several days. Abbott Burchard, the leader of Ursberg Abbey at the time, recorded the sight in that year's chronicle...This medieval manuscript may have been the first record of a rare space phenomenon called a recurrent nova — a dead star siphoning matter from a larger companion, triggering repeated flares of light at regular intervals. According to new research, the "wonderful" star in question may be T CrB, which sits in the constellation Corona Borealis...