So, what are zombie stars?
This is kind of a nickname
that we're giving the white dwarf in this particular system.
So you can think of a white dwarf as a star
that's kind of reached the end of its life.
So you can think about that as it's like a zombie.
And then what happens is it
grabs material from the secondary star nearby,
and that goes on the surface of the white dwarf.
And then we have the explosion within that material.
And that's the nova outburst.
You can think about the zombie being reinvigorated and being much more active.
And then after a while, when it doesn't get to eat anything,
it goes a lot quiet again.
And then with this particular system, in eight years, it
will eat some more material and become re-energized again.
So when we think about,
Taco Bell and the White Dwarf, we give it the nickname of a zombie,
So why are we interested in this particular system?
Well, this is, only 3000 light years away,
and the outburst is going to be particularly bright.
It's going to be comparative to Polaris, which is, about about second magnitude.
And so we're gonna be able to view it very well, and we're gonna be able
to do that now with a bunch of different, telescopes and facilities.
So we haven't really, used before on this object.
So originally, scientists thought that this star was going to explode
by September.
Now, this is what we call a recurrent nova system.
So what I mean by that is that it has to have an outburst.
So that's when the material is ejected from the surface,
the white dwarf from that explosion.
And then what would happen is after all that matter was, you know,
after that's been flung out, it will grab more material
from the secondary star
and then build up again, and then I'll have another eruption, another outburst,
and that we'll see in the sky.
Now, for this object.
This happens every 80 years or so.
So I believe the first record of this happening was in 1217.
And then the last outburst that we saw here on earth was in 1946.
And we kind of have seen as astronomers
that this seems to have happened every 80 years or so.
And previously before the outburst, we tended to see this kind of behavior
where it's decreased in brightness very slowly.
And then once we started to see that slight decrease in brightness.
But a year or so later, we saw the outburst, the big eruption.
Now this decrease in brightness started happening.
Can't remember the top of my head, but it seemed to indicate that
the next eruption should happen, before September of this year.
Now we've already gone past September and it hasn't happened yet.
But that's because this is kind of unpredictable science.
You know, it might be it will happen before the end of the year.
It might actually happen next year.
It's all really an estimate. And it keeps us,
second guessing what we see.
So we'll see some trend, but it might not happen.
And if it doesn't happen by next year, that also gives us some other
interesting information about the system as well.
So either way, we'll find out something really interesting
about what's going on in the system, whether we see an outburst
in the next few months or maybe later on next year.
So this,
Nova event happens about every 80 years.
And it is only 3000 light years away from us in the Northern Crown constellation.
And because it's so close
and because it gets so bright, we can learn a lot from this system.
But also most importantly is since 1946, we actually have new facilities,
which will observe x rays and gamma rays,
and we can coordinate all of our observations together on this object.
So we're going to really understand the physics
of what's happening in the explosion.
Get a better understanding of the dynamics between the two stars, and learn
about the composition of the stars themselves.
So how can you
see this, new star when it does go nova?
And what can you do to prepare?
So essentially, this, Nova, this bright, this new star is going to happen
in the Northern Crown constellation or Corona Borealis, and that's near Hercules.
And the way in which we'll be able to view it.
Well, if you have, a dark night sky, you'll see a,
brighter star in that constellation, and it's going to be
comparatively bright to Polaris, which is a second magnitude star.
Additionally, what you can do if you don't have dark Sky
is you can also, you know, use various apps on your phone like Sky view
or to make sure you know what that, where that region is
and also when you found it, know what it should look like.
And then when it goes into the outburst, you'll see that slightly brighter
star in that region.
You're not going to see a huge explosion in space, obviously, but you will see
a slight brightening of a star in that constellation.
So what am I most excited about?
This event?
This is something that I'm never going to get to go see.
And once it's, really is every 80 years or so.
And I think for this event, because we're going to have so
many facilities observing it, we're going to learn so much more
about what's happening and the physics in the system.
And I like to think of novae as mini laboratories
for other more, energetic events.
So now we really help us to understand the physics that are going on
in these binary systems and what we call accretion.
So the way in which we grab material from one star and put it onto another.
They really help us understand that process,
and they can help us to understand it on a bigger scale as well.
So I'm really excited about the new physics that we're going to learn
with all these amazing facilities that we now have.
So will our star.
Our sun ends up like this system will have the same fate.
The answer is no.
All star is a, a star in isolation.
And it doesn't have that secondary companion
from which you can steal material.
So it could have a Nova event.
So eventually Asan is going to become a white dwarf,
and it will spend the rest of his time just cooling down.
So the last time that this nova went into
eruption was in 1946, and we didn't some have
some of the facilities that we now have today with NASA.
Essentially we can use facilities like Fermi and Sby and James
Webb and Hubble to do a multi wavelength, campaign on this object.
We can observe it in the visible.
So what you view with your eyes,
but we can observe it with gamma ray detectors and x ray detectors.
And this is really important to gain a full understanding of the system itself.
So the composition of things, the, the accretion processes that's dragging
material from one star on to another and the explosion mechanism itself.
so what is the difference between a nova and a supernova?
Well, a nova system.
And that could happen multiple times
because the system isn't destroyed once the explosion happens.
It's just an explosion on the surface of the white dwarf in a supernova system.
Well, the the system is destroyed.
That white dwarf is destroyed in the explosion.
And you cannot have a recurrence happen again.
A supernova event is much more energetic.
And a one time thing
So why are
nova important and what role do they play in solar system development?
Well, Nova are actually quite frequent events in our galaxy.
And another galaxies.
And by observing them we can get a lot of insight
into other, other, energetic events.
They also produce a lot of lithium, which is really important for, our galaxy.
And, you know, having what we call heavier elements.
So novae are frequent, bright.
And we can also, observe them from the ground in some cases,
which makes them even more exciting.
so what are scientists doing
to observe the system and getting prepared for its explosion?
Well, there are several telescopes, I believe, which are still observing.
It's to check when it will go into outburst.
But typically we get a lot of information from, the amateur astronomer communities
who tend to focus on a region in the night sky and then send out alerts
the broader community to let us know that this event has been happening.
That's how, actually, a lot of novae have been detected in the past.
And so when one of those alerts are sent out to the community,
everybody else will jump on board and start observing with their own facilities
and with the space based facilities as well.