Clarkson University Science Cafés Kick Off for Fall on October 2 With Nova of T Coronae Borealis of 2024 or 2025

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September 30, 2024

The fall 2024 Clarkson University Science Cafes begin on Wednesday, October 2 at 7:15 pm in Potsdam at the Potsdam Civic Center in the Community Room at 2 Park Street with Nova of T Coronae Borealis of 2024 or 2025.

A nova is expected in 2024 or 2025 in the binary star T Coronae Borealis (the 'Blaze Star' in the constellation Corona Borealis), located 2900 LY away. It last had a nova outburst in 1946 and eighty years before that, putting it on an eighty-year period.

Elaine Fortin, Solar System Ambassador of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Adirondack Sky Center and Observatory, will discuss the understanding of novae, a form of astronomical transient, before and since the surprising knowledge learned from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray telescope launched in 2008.

About 10 to 15 novae (maybe even double that!) happen in our galaxy each year. Records of novae have only been kept since telescopes have been powerful enough to capture them. It is expected that many stars are recurrent, possibly every thousand years or so but T Coronae Borealis is special because this will be another of its outbursts seen and studied by modern-day astronomers. It is hoped to be visible to the naked eye but expected to last only a few days before it returns to its quiescent state.

Science Cafés are held in Potsdam in the Potsdam Civic Center Community Room at 2 Park Street at 7:15 p.m.

For the full schedule of upcoming Science Cafés, click here.