NORFOLK, Va. — If you look up into the sky, you might just see a star as it rises from its cosmic grave! NASA says a "zombie" star system could soon be visible to the naked eye.
Roughly every 80 years, a binary star system about 3,000 light-years away called T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) explodes, bringing one of its stars briefly back from the dead. Skywatchers will be able to see this "new" star in the night sky for about a week without needing binoculars or telescopes.
The star system is made up of two stars that orbit each other: one is a white dwarf, an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star. The other is a red giant, which is a gigantic star in its final death throes.
NASA scientist Dr. Bill Cook says white dwarfs are some of the densest objects in the universe, and that the gravity from the white dwarf in T CrB siphons stellar material from its red giant partner, feeding from it like a vampire.
When it siphons off enough material, it explodes in an event called a nova. The explosion only affects the star's surface layers, allowing the whole process to repeat over and over again! Dr. Cook says the last time T CrB went nova was in 1946, and scientists expect it could blow up again at any time.
If you're star gazing for it in the night sky, you might want to use a star finder app just to help you find the constellation Corona Borealis, where T CrB is located. It’s not that far from the Big Dipper, and that'll help you see the new star when it does show up. It'll remain visible for about a week following the explosion.