An Astronomer Calculated the Exact Day a Star Will Blow—and It’s Today

Astronomers have been watching a small constellation in the night sky, waiting for a nearby binary star system to explode. The wait may finally be over: A numerical estimate predicts the rare nova eruption could happen on Thursday, March 27. T Coronae Borealis (T CrB), also known as the Blaze Star, is a binary star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth. It periodically explodes in a recurring nova every 79 years or so, and it’s due for an impending eruption. The Blaze Star has spent the past decade behaving much like it did in the lead-up to its last visible eruption nearly 80 years ago, according to NASA. The current window for the rare astronomical event opened in February 2024 and remains open. Astronomy enthusiasts have been keeping a close eye on the skies since last year, waiting for that stellar boom. A paper published last year in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society estimated that the star is likely to explode on Thursday, March 27—so get ready to look u ... Read full article.