Yes, that is correct. What you will witness happened 3000 years ago. You will only see it now because it took light of the event 3000 years to reach Earth.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/nas...r-5-things-need-know

By Chris Eberhart | Fox News
Published June 19, 2024 4:00am EDT

An impending nova event will be so bright that people on Earth will be able to see the burst of light with the naked eye, NASA scientists said.

There's an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star with a mass comparable to the sun on a star about 3,000 light years from Earth that's expected to explode at some point this summer, according to NASA.

The exact date when that will happen is unknown, although NASA continues to track it.

The spectacular explosion is "a once-in-a-lifetime event," NASA's nova expert Rebekah Hounsell said, "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."

Hounsell is an assistant research scientist specializing in nova events at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

She put this summer's event on the "Blaze Star" into historical perspective.

"There are a few recurrent novae 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," she said in a statement.

"It’s incredibly exciting to have this front-row seat."

This is a nova event, which Hounsell explained is different from a supernova, which is a "final, titanic explosion" that destroys dying stars, NASA said in a press release.

In this particular event, the dwarf star will remain intact, but "accumulated material" will be blasted into the abyss of space in a "blinding flash," according to NASA, which explains that this cycle repeats over time and can carry on for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years.

Here are NASA's three tips for American stargazers

1. The burst of light will be "brief," according to NASA, but it's expected to be visible to the naked eye for a little less than a week.

2. Expect the unexpected. The exact timing of the nova is unknown, as of mid-June.

"Recurrent novae are unpredictable and contrarian," said Koji Mukai, another astrophysicist at NASA Goddad. When scientists think they nailed down a set pattern, novae can "deviate from it completely."

"We'll see how T CrB (scientific name for ‘Blaze Star’) behaves," he said.

3. Finding where to look could be tricky.

NASA suggested first locating the Northern Crown, a horseshoe-shaped curve of stars west of the Hercules constellation (included in an illustration below), as the starting point.

The two brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere (Arcturus and Vega) create a straight line from one to the other, which will lead stargazers to the Hercules constellation and Corona Borealis, where the burst of light will be most visible.

"Look up after sunset during summer months to find Hercules, then scan between Vega and Arcturus, where the distinct pattern of Corona Borealis may be identified," NASA said.

Here are two facts about the history of the 'Blaze Star'

1. The first recorded sighting of a "Blaze Star" nova was in the fall of 1217, when a German scientist noted a "faint star that for a time shone with great light," according to NASA.

2. Fast-forward to 1946, which was the last time the "Blaze Star" nova was seen from Earth, NASA said.

To put it in perspective, that was two years before the Frisbee, the jukebox and Velcro were invented.

Technology today, coupled with the star's proximity to Earth, will give scientists an unprecedented insight.

Elizabeth Hays, chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA Goddard, said scientists will observe the event "at its peak and through its decline, as the visible energy of the outburst fades."

"It’s equally critical to obtain data during the early rise to eruption – so the data collected by those avid citizen scientists on the lookout now for the nova will contribute dramatically to our findings," Hays said in a statement.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Yes, that is correct. What you will witness happened 3000 years ago. You will only see it now because it took light of the event 3000 years to reach Earth.

From the article:

There's an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star with a mass comparable to the sun on a star about 3,000 light years from Earth that's expected to explode at some point this summer, according to NASA.

I read the article this morning and also noted the error. Your title and interpretation are correct. The explosion happened a long time ago.

Has anyone seen predictions of the apparent magnitude of the expected nova?

Probably not. "Recurrent novae are unpredictable and contrarian," said Koji Mukai…

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Has anyone seen predictions of the apparent magnitude of the expected nova?

If it is anything like the Blaze Starr I remember, about a 42DD, I think.

^^^^^^
42DD? Impressive. Where did Blaze Starr do her act?

So this nova event occurs about once a century rather than once every three millennia?

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
^^^^^^
42DD? Impressive. Where did Blaze Starr do her act?

I remember seeing her in the tabloids in the early 60's.
I was just a kid then so I didn't actually see her act.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 12131:

3. Finding where to look could be tricky.

NASA suggested first locating the Northern Crown, a horseshoe-shaped curve of stars west of the Hercules constellation (included in an illustration below), as the starting point.

The two brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere (Arcturus and Vega) create a straight line from one to the other, which will lead stargazers to the Hercules constellation and Corona Borealis, where the burst of light will be most visible.

"Look up after sunset during summer months to find Hercules, then scan between Vega and Arcturus, where the distinct pattern of Corona Borealis may be identified," NASA said.

Or, as Sheriff Andy Taylor would say, "Just go by my house and pick up Opey. He can show you how to get there....""

Blaze Starr lived about 3 miles from me growing up. After she stopped "performing", she sold homemade jewelry at a mall near where I live now.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
So this nova event occurs about once a century rather than once every three millennia?

The every 100 years is the once in a lifetime part. That it’s 3,000 light years away is why they say what we will see happened 3,000 years ago. Because it is reoccurring is how they know we will see it.

How impressive will this event be if it's going to be tricky to find? Will it be as bright as Venus or Sirius in the night sky or will it look just a little bit brighter than other stars on any given night? Seems some of these celestial events get hyped and turn out to be duds.

An article I just read stated it is normally invisible to the naked eye and will go to magnitude +2, which is about the brightness of Polaris, the North Star.
So, nothing very spectacular.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that it happened 3,000 years ago. The light of that event hasn't reached the earth yet. So how did they know this happened 3,000 years ago and just now, we're about to see it???

It's 3000 light years away, but it is a "periodic" nova event.

The smaller dwarf takes on matter from the larger star, and every 80 years it "lights off" and goes nova for about a week.

It has been recorded about 9 times over the past 800 years, so it's sort of like "Old Faithful".

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that it happened 3,000 years ago. The light of that event hasn't reached the earth yet. So how did they know this happened 3,000 years ago and just now, we're about to see it???

Maybe because the light is shifting increasingly blue would be my guess, versus shifting red for most of the rest of the objects we have so far located in the teeny tiny part of the universe that is still observable to us. But that's just my uneducated guess. BTW the observable universe to us, based on calculations, is a very small portion of the actual universe that must exist based on current knowledge, and I mean by a lot. As in gobs, and for all practical purposes if one could imagine the sale, infinite, though based on the best theories, is actually not infinite. The scales are mind blowing. After so many zeroes of powers, the scales become academic, to us at least. Read up on light wavelength shifting and how they calculate the "size" of the universe for lack of a better term. Pretty interesting stuff.

^^^^^^^
There’s no significant red or blue shift for stars within our own galaxy (as the "Blaze Star" nova is), so Doppler shifts aren’t the explanation.

trapper189’s post, a few above, is a correct, clear, and concise explanation.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
though based on the best theories, is actually not infinite.

If it is not infinite, what is outside of it? That question has always made my head hurt.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that it happened 3,000 years ago. The light of that event hasn't reached the earth yet. So how did they know this happened 3,000 years ago and just now, we're about to see it???

BTW the observable universe to us, based on calculations, is a very small portion of the actual universe that must exist based on current knowledge, and I mean by a lot.

This part I can actually understand. We know the universe is expanding. And it takes time for the light from the edge of the universe to arrive on the earth. But the light from the edge of the universe that we're seeing now started from the edge of the universe some time ago and the edge of the universe is no longer there since it has expanded away. So the actual universe is already farther out than what we currently see.

I think I also understand how scientists know it's going to happen. As Sigmonkey pointed out, it's a "periodic" event. It's also in the OP. It was first sighted in 1217. Then the last time it was seen was 1946.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
An article I just read stated it is normally invisible to the naked eye and will go to magnitude +2, which is about the brightness of Polaris, the North Star.
So, nothing very spectacular.

I can see people who are into astronomy going nuts over this but doesn't seem like its something worth bothering to see otherwise.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that it happened 3,000 years ago. The light of that event hasn't reached the earth yet. So how did they know this happened 3,000 years ago and just now, we're about to see it???

There are some YouTube videos on all this, including how to find the exact location. Iirc, the brightness has quickly dimmed substantially in a particular pattern, which signals a specific process is underway. They know the timeline is measured in a few months, so the window is from now until September-ish for it to go nova.