A person could go a lifetime without seeing a star explode with their own eyes. Right now, people in the southern hemisphere can see two stars exploding at the same time. The first (V462 Lupi) appeared on June 12th in the constellation Lupus, and the second (V572 Velorum) on June 25th in Vela. They're both brighter than 6th magnitude, the threshold for naked-eye visibility.
Eliot Herman photographed V572 Velorum on June 28th using a robotic telescope in Chile.
"This is without question an extremely rare event, if not an historical one," says astronomer Stephen O’Meara, who has been scouring historical records for the last time this happened. "I have yet to find an occurrence of two simultaneous nova appearing at the same time."
"I thought I had found a pair in 1936 (V630 Sgr and V368 Aql)," he says. "But I looked at their light curves, and it turns out they were not at maximum brightness at the same time."
These appear to be classical novas. First documented by Chinese astronomers some 2000 years ago, the explosions occur in binary star systems. White dwarf stars steal gas from a bloated partner until the stolen fuel ignites in a sudden thermonuclear blast. It's less dramatic than a supernova, but still an awesome blast.
Nova V462 Lupi is currently near magnitude +5.9, while V572 Velorum, fading from a peak near +4.8, is the brighter of the two. Southern astronomers, this may not happen again for a loooong time.
https://spaceweather.com/
"I thought I had found a pair in 1936 (V630 Sgr and V368 Aql)," he says. "But I looked at their light curves, and it turns out they were not at maximum brightness at the same time."
These appear to be classical novas. First documented by Chinese astronomers some 2000 years ago, the explosions occur in binary star systems. White dwarf stars steal gas from a bloated partner until the stolen fuel ignites in a sudden thermonuclear blast. It's less dramatic than a supernova, but still an awesome blast.
Nova V462 Lupi is currently near magnitude +5.9, while V572 Velorum, fading from a peak near +4.8, is the brighter of the two. Southern astronomers, this may not happen again for a loooong time.
https://spaceweather.com/
RSS Feed