A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis. The red giant is a large sphere in shades of red, orange, and white, with the side facing the white dwarf the lightest shades. The white dwarf is hidden in a bright glow of white and yellows, which represent an accretion disk around the star.
A stream of material, shown as a diffuse cloud of red, flows from the red giant to the white dwarf. When the red giant moves behind the white dwarf, a nova explosion on the white dwarf ignites, creating a ball of ejected nova material shown in pale orange. After the fog of material clears, a small white spot remains, indicating that the white dwarf has survived the explosion.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Gazing skyward, roughly , lies a captivating cosmic drama unfolding within the constellation Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. Here, a binary star system known as T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB for short, ignites the imagination of astronomers, explained . Nicknamed the “Blaze Star” for its fiery outbursts, T CrB presents a rare spectacle – a recurrent nova with the potential to inspire a new generation of stargazers.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers out there, giving young people a cosmic event they can observe for themselves, ask their own questions, and collect their own data,” said Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist specializing in nova events at NAS.
