T Coronae Borealis, which is normally located at magnitude +10, which NASA reports is “far too dim to see with the unaided eye,” will jump to magnitude +2 during the explosion.
Schaefer has been studying T Coronae Borealis for decades, saying the chance to see the explosion from Earth with the naked eye will be “magnificent.”
“It’s a way of humbling ourselves for the titanic forces that are happening, fortunately, very far away, that’s happening above our heads,” he said, likening the power of the explosion to a hydrogen bomb.
“It really actually is a hydrogen-fusion bomb just like in the movie ‘Oppenheimer,'” Schaefer said.
The difference between nova and supernova events, according to NASA, is in a recurring nova, the dwarf star stays intact during the explosion. In contrast, a supernova occurs when a dying star is destroyed in one final eruption.
“There are a few recurrent novas with very short cycles, but typically, we don’t often see a repeated outburst in a human lifetime, and rarely one so relatively close to our own system,” Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist specializing in nova events at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a June press release.
T Coronae Borealis is one of just 10 recurring novas known in the Milky Way that erupt on time scales of less than a century, according to NASA.
“It’s incredibly exciting to have this front-row seat,” Hounsell added.
The agency says during the event, the star system will be similar in brightness to the North Star, Polaris, and may shine this bright for days or a week after first appearing.
