Every clear night for the past three weeks, Bob Stephens has pointed his home telescope at the same two stars in hopes of witnessing one of the most violent events in the universe—a new explosion a hundred thousand times brighter. of the sun
The eruption, which scientists say could happen any day, has excited the interest of major observers worldwide, and promises to advance our understanding of turbulent binary star systems.
Yet for all the high-tech observational power that NASA and other scientific institutions can muster, astrophysicists rely on countless amateur astronomers like Stephens to see the explosion first.
The reason? It is too expensive to keep their equipment focused on the same subject for months at a time.
“I think everyone is going to watch it happen, but sitting here just watching it isn’t going to make it happen,” said Tom Meneghini, director of telescope operations and executive director emeritus of the Mt. . Wilson. “It’s like a stored pot,” he joked.
The star is so far away that it takes 3,000 years for its light to reach Earth, meaning that the explosion occurred before the last Egyptian pyramids were built. It will be almost as bright as the North Star for a few days before fading into darkness.
Once spotted, some of the most advanced observers on Earth and in space will join in to see, including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
“A lot of people are looking forward to seeing the new jewel in the crown,” said Mansi Kasliwal, the Caltech astronomy professor who plans to use the Palomar Observatory in northeast San Diego County to observe the event. . The nova will erupt in the constellation of Corona Borealis, or Corona Nordica.
Steve Flanders, outreach coordinator for Palomar Observatory, shows off the observatory’s Gattini-IR telescope, which Caltech professor Mansi Kasliwal’s team will use to observe the explosion of the star Blaze.
(Hayne Palmour IV/For The Times)
T Coronae Borealis, also called the Blaze Star, is actually two stars – a hot, dense white dwarf, and a cooler red giant.
The dwarf star, which ran out of fuel long ago and collapsed to roughly Earth size, siphoned hydrogen gas from its larger neighbor for about a human lifetime.
This stolen gas has accumulated in a disk around the dwarf like a hot, messy version of Saturn’s rings. Soon, the disk will grow so heavy that it will become violent and cumbersomeand inevitably, it explodes like a thermonuclear bomb.
No star is destroyed though, and the process repeats itself about every 80 years.
Stephens has had data from T Coronae Borealis for years. The oscillations in the data represent the two stars orbiting each other.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
This time, there is an army of enthusiasts like Stephens ready to sound the alarm when the star returns.
Far from mere hobbyists, a number of these amateur observers have published their own scientific research. Stephens also built his own observatory as an addition to his home in Rancho Cucamonga.
“The city thinks it’s a sunroom,” Stephens said. After the inspector stopped, he removed the screws securing the roof, allowing him to roll it up to reveal the clear sky to his telescope.
Every night, he turns on the telescope and spends more than an hour taking the data, which he then posts to an online community of amateur astronomers who monitor the star almost non-stop.
Major observers cannot maintain such constant vigilance. Hundreds of scientists compete for time to look at a wide range of astronomical targets each night. For them, keeping these telescopes glued to the Blaze Star is a waste of valuable observation time.
Estimates on when the nova will occur vary, but most astrophysicists agree that it will happen before the end of the year, and probably at the end of August.
Once it blows, there are a few warning systems set up to alert amateurs and professionals alike. Some observers have even programmed their telescopes to autonomously leave their current viewing plane and look at the star when the notification comes, Stephens said.
Major observers also face another complication. Many of their telescopes are designed to look at the faintest and dimmest targets, but the new Blaze Star will be anything but faint. Pointing these telescopes at the nova will overwhelm the sensors, resulting in a washed out and overexposed picture.
That’s why Palomar Observatory, Caltech’s research station in northern San Diego County, doesn’t use its iconic 16-foot-wide Hale telescope under its massive white dome. Instead, it uses a much smaller telescope, called Gattini-IR, located in a small brick building about a quarter of a mile down the road.
Once the new one happens, Gattini-IR will switch from observing the Blaze Star every couple of nights to every couple of hours.
Steve Flanders enters the small building on the Palomar Observatory grounds where the Gattini-IR telescope is housed. The Gattini-IR telescope monitors the Blaze Star, which is expected to go nova.
(Hayne Palmour IV/For The Times)
Scientists say they still have a lot to learn about novae. For example, physicists are not sure why some erupt every decade while others probably not for millennia.
Some researchers suspect that novae like the Blaze Star could be precursors to supernovae. These explosions – billions of times brighter than the sun – destroy the star, often leaving behind a black hole. Supernovas are also a useful tool for astronomers to measure distance.
Studying similar events has already led to discoveries, however.
Recently, scientists have determined that novae tend to throw material into space at a faster rate than would be expected based on the intensity of the explosion.
“We want to understand the physics of novae, so having a nova that is close to T Coronae Borelias, which hopefully will be very well studied by all the telescopes … we can get a very complete picture,” said Caltech professor Kasliwal.
Some of that understanding will be due in part to amateur astronomers.
Thanks to the rapid development of telescopes, amateurs are working with technology that professionals did not have just 20 years ago, and even 80, said Forrest Sims, an amateur astronomer from Apache Junction, Arizona, who also observes the star every clear night.
And hobbyists can get better coverage than large telescopes because “we typically have complete control over when and where we can point (our telescopes),” Sims said. “A professional may have to write a grant to get half an hour or two hours on a large telescope.”
That allows them to collect a lot of data. And with hundreds in the community watching from around the world, they can get almost continuous coverage of the Blaze Star. Many, including Sims and Stephens, post their data at the American Assn. of the Variable Star Observers websitewhich allows everyone to use the data.
Stephens remembers reading a newspaper article by a professional who was able to observe five asteroids in two years. “I thought, I could do this in a month,” Stephens said. He went on to publish a paper with 10 observations.
In his observatory at home, Bob Stephens uses a Borg 101 telescope. “Resistance is futile!” Stephens said when he introduced the telescope, a reference to the phrase uttered by “the Borg” in “Star Trek”.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
One professor was so shocked by the number that Stephens was able to see that she reached and agreed to fly to Puerto Rico for an asteroid conference just to meet him. Until they worked together – Stephens had the telescopes; he had connections in the field.
Today, the work of the amateur astronomer has become so sophisticated, many in the field are difficult to call amateurs.
“We call ourselves ‘little telescope scientists,'” Sims said. “It sounds more fun, and in some respects, professionals—and not even grudgingly—admit that the work we do is often professional caliber.”