EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT A STAR

A star is a celestial body composed mainly of gas and plasma, which shines by its own light. It is the result of the gravitational collapse of a cloud of gas and dust in space. Stars are the most numerous and visible objects in the Universe.

There are billions of them in our own Milky Way galaxy, and many more in other galaxies. They are born from gigantic clouds of gas and dust that collapse under their own gravity. When enough matter accumulates, the temperature and pressure at the center of the cloud rise, triggering nuclear reactions. This is the beginning of a star's life.

Hold on, I want to briefly explain a nuclear reaction before going any further. A nuclear reaction is a process in which atomic nuclei transform, releasing or absorbing energy in the form of heat or radiation. In addition to this explanation, I suggest you follow this video by Jamy Gourmaud on stars. For me, Jamin is a mentor, one of the people who inspired me to become a knowledge broker. Let's go back to space In our galaxy, there are several stars, including...

- The Sun: This is the closest star to us, some 150 million km away. It's a medium-sized, yellow star that supplies all the energy we need to sustain life on Earth.

- Sirius: The brightest star in the night sky. It's a blue-white star, about 25 times brighter than the Sun, located 8.6 light-years from Earth.

Sirius is also the name of the Benin astroclub created by Mr. Prudence A, a generous man who has never refused to reserve a few minutes for me when I need them for the development of my astronomy club (astroclub Kongo central). By the way, if today, say this year, my country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, is selected to organize the biggest Nasa International Space Apps hackathon, this man is one of the people who guided us. Welcome back to the stars.

Once ignited, a star shines and radiates energy for millions or even billions of years, depending on its size. The more massive the star, the shorter its life. Inside, complex nuclear reactions produce the various chemical elements that make up the star, such as hydrogen, helium, carbon, oxygen and so on.

But when the star has used up all its fuel, the end comes. For the biggest stars, this ends in a gigantic explosion called a supernova! The star then becomes so bright that it can be seen for weeks from Earth.

With the right instruments, it's much easier to carry out in-depth studies of stars. There are so many stars in the sky that we can't count them all. They form patterns called constellations.

Let's talk about T CORONAE BOREALIS.

Following a publication on the net, I was identified by a friend, Nathan T. For him, it was a way of letting me know whether the information was true or false.

I couldn't give him an answer, so I decided to find out more about T Coronae borealis.

Basically, according to the page that published the information, it announced that there would be an explosion of this star in September 2024. It should be noted that this information was provided by NASA.

The star T Coronae Borealis is a recurrent nova, which means it has undergone several explosions in the past, and astronomers are keeping a close eye on this star, but at present there is no indication that an explosion is imminent in the coming months. Long-term predictions of Novae outbursts are still highly uncertain.

As a science citizen who has participated in several IASC campaigns, which subsequently enabled me to subscribe to the NASA newsletters they refer to, I have received no mention of a forthcoming nova explosion predicted for T Coronae Borealis in 2024 or in the near future.

On the other hand, there are scientific articles, as I quote: The Astrophysical Journal says the next likely explosion could take place in the 2040s-2050s, but several sources have mentioned that this star's last nova explosion was in 2021.

I can talk about some telescope observations of this star. Of course, with this article, my friend Nathan T will find an answer to his indirect question.