Featured Image Credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty
Anyone interested in stargazing should have their eyes keenly fixed on the sky this week, as there's a strong chance you'll be able to witness an extremely rare star explosion from the comfort of your own home.
While the night sky is certainly beautiful in its own right, certain uncommon events can make it an unmissable experience for a short period of time. solar eclipses, the Northern Lights, and even a shooting star are all events that'll leave anyone amazed, but this upcoming incident is something you should definitely pay attention to.
As reported by Daily Galaxy, it could be as early as this week that we can see the extremely rare explosion of the Blaze Star, otherwise known as T Coronae Borealis inside the Northern Crown.
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The exact date that it's explosion will become visible is currently unclear, as it could be any time in the next couple of months, but astrophysicist Jean Schneider at the Paris Observatory has predicted that it could fall on March 27, 2025.
While this unpredictability is understandably frustrating, the good thing about a star explosion like this is that it will last for at least a couple of days, so you don't have to worry about missing it overnight or when you're not looking.
It'll reach peak brightness for a couple of hours after the explosion begins, and then slowly fade back to it's typical visibility over the course of the next few days giving you plenty of chance to observe the amazing event yourself.
It's been 78 years since we last had a nova event in the Milky Way, and the staggering nature of the Blaze Star is that it's been over 3,000 years in the making.
Due to the fact that T Coronae Borealis is located around 3,000 light-years away from Earth, it takes an incredibly long time for the light to become visible to us on Earth. We're seeing it happen in 'real time' on Earth, but astrophysicists estimate that the explosion actually occurred at around 1,000 BCE, or in the Bronze Age.
If you're looking out for the Blaze Star, you'll first need to locate the Northern Crown. This is a C-shaped constellation that can be spotted if you look east before dawn now that we're in late spring.
Once the explosion occurs you'll notice that the Northern Crown has a new star among it - one that shines brighter than those around it - and that'll be the Blaze Star current exploding.
Right now you won't be able to see T Coronae Borealis as it has a brightness level of magnitude 10, whereas at it's peak following the explosion it'll reach magnitude 2, making it easy to spot in the night sky.
