{"id":136466,"date":"2025-11-16T14:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T14:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/136466\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T14:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T14:59:12","slug":"never-mind-betelgeuse-we-could-soon-see-a-supernova-explosion-as-bright-as-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/136466\/","title":{"rendered":"Never mind Betelgeuse. We could soon see a supernova explosion as bright as the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new supernova may soon light up our skies.<\/p>\n<p>An international team of astronomers have been studying a greedy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/white-dwarf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">white dwarf<\/a> in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/advice\/double-binary-stars-guide\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">binary star<\/a> system called V Sagittae, which is just 10,000 lightyears from Earth.<\/p>\n<p>More explosive space science<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"836\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/biggest-explosions.jpg\" alt=\"Biggest explosions in space. Credit: Sean Gladwell \/ Getty Images\" class=\"wp-image-175293\"\/>Credit: Sean Gladwell \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s burning unusually brightly as it speedily consumes its much larger companion star.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, it\u2019s stripping this stellar material so fast it can\u2019t handle all of it, creating a halo of shining gas that surrounds both stars.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"823\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/V-Sagittae.jpg\" alt=\"Artist's impression of double star V Sagittae, which is burning bright because a greedy white dwarf is gorging on its larger twin\" class=\"wp-image-178531\"\/>Artist&#8217;s impression of double star V Sagittae, which is burning bright because a greedy white dwarf is gorging on its larger twin<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;V Sagittae is no ordinary star system,&#8221; says Phil Charles from Southampton University, UK, one of the study\u2019s authors.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s the brightest of its kind and has baffled experts since it was discovered in 1902.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our study shows that this extreme brightness is down to the white dwarf sucking the life out of its companion star, using the accreted matter to turn it into a blazing inferno.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s a process so intense,&#8221; he continues, &#8220;that it\u2019s going thermonuclear on the white dwarf\u2019s surface, shining like a beacon in the night sky.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"776\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/white-dwarf-red-giant-binary-e7151e0-e1630935336168.jpeg\" alt=\"Artist's impression of a white dwarf drawing material away from a red giant. Credit: NASA\/CXC\/M.Weiss\" class=\"wp-image-99746\"\/>Artist&#8217;s impression of a white dwarf drawing material away from a red giant. Credit: NASA\/CXC\/M.Weiss<\/p>\n<p>Using observations from the ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope, the team believe that the high speed at which the cannibal star is consuming its larger twin means it will meet a cataclysmic end very soon.<\/p>\n<p>The explosion \u2013 which could shine as bright as the Moon \u2013 could still be years or even decades away.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The matter accumulating on the white dwarf is likely to produce a nova outburst in the coming years, during which V Sagittae would become visible with the naked eye,&#8221; says Pablo Rodr\u00edguez-Gil,<br \/>co-author of the study.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full study at <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/mnras\/advance-article\/doi\/10.1093\/mnras\/staf1284\/8233646?login=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">academic.oup.com\/mnras\/advance-article\/doi\/10.1093\/mnras\/staf1284\/8233646<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new supernova may soon light up our skies. An international team of astronomers have been studying a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-136466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}