Two ‘never seen' stars explode into sky without warning in ‘historical extremely rare event' – & easy trick to spot them
Two distant stellar explosions have burned so bright that we can now see them from Earth with the naked eye.
4
4
It is the first time in recorded history that more than one of these luminous outbursts has been visible to humans at the same time, according to scientists.
The first nova, dubbed V462 Lupi, was first spotted 12 June in the Lupus constellation.
The distant star that existed before the dramatic transformation was 3 million times dimmer than it is now.
Then on 25 June, astronomers detected another nova, dubbed V572 Velorum, within the Vela constellation, according to EarthSky.org.
A classic nova – a space explosion that is shorter-lived than a supernova – typically appears in the night sky once a year at most.
More than one of these events simultaneously are almost unheard of.
"This is without question an extremely rare event, if not an historical one," astronomer and author Stephen O'Meara, told Spaceweather.com.
"I have yet to find an occurrence of two simultaneous nova appearing at the same time."
The last time we came close to simultaneous novas visible to the naked eye was in 1936 - but both V630 Sgr and V368 Aql were still weeks apart.
O'Meara, who has been trawling historical records for similar events, added: "They were not at maximum brightness at the same time."
I'm space travel agent 'Mr Intergalatic' who brokers trips for rich - but holidays to the stars will soon be for all
What am I looking for?
V572 Velorum shines with brilliant blue-white light, while V462 Lupi has a purple hue, according to Live Science.
Eventually, the stars will turn red before disappearing, as the longer blue-colored wavelengths of light fade first.
V462 Lupi's brightness peaked on 20 June, at a magnitude of +5.5 - which is how the brightness of stars is measured.
That would make it dimmer than Polaris and Sirius, the brightest stars in the sky.
Since then, the star has weakened slightly but remains above the +6 magnitude threshold, which means it is detectable by the naked eye.
V572 Velorum is brighter, peaking at +4.8 on 27 June.
Both the Lupus and Vela constellations are in the southern sky - which means they are below the horizon in the UK but visible in some parts of North America, including Mexico, California and Texas.
4
4
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Nasa discovers interstellar comet moving through solar system
It isn't a bird, it isn't a plane and it certainly isn't Superman – but it does appear to be a visitor from beyond our solar system, according to astronomers who have discovered a new object hurtling through our cosmic neighbourhood. The object, originally called A11pl3Z and now known as 3I/Atlas, was first reported by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (Atlas) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, on Tuesday. According to Nasa, subsequent analysis of data collected by various telescopes before this date have extended observations back to 14 June; while further observations have also been made. As a result, experts have been plotting the path of the visitor. Now about 416m miles away from the Sun and travelling from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, the object is believed to be whizzing through the solar system at about 60km/s relative to the sun on a highly eccentric, hyperbolic orbit – suggesting that, like the cigar-shaped object 'Oumuamua that appeared in 2017 and the comet 2I/Borisov that turned up in 2019, it is a visitor from afar. Dr Mark Norris, senior lecturer in astronomy at the University of Central Lancashire, said: 'If confirmed, it will be the third known interstellar object from outside our solar system that we have discovered, providing more evidence that such interstellar wanderers are relatively common in our galaxy.' While the nature of the new visitor was not initially apparent, the Minor Planet Center has revealed that tentative signs of cometary activity have been spotted, noting the object has a marginal coma and short tail. As a result the object has been given the additional name of C/2025 N1. While some experts have suggested the object could be as large as 20km in diameter – bigger than the space rock that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs – it seems Earth residents don't need to worry. Nasa said: 'The comet poses no threat to Earth and will remain at a distance of at least 1.6 astronomical units [about 150m miles].' It said the object would reach its closest approach to the sun around 30 October, coming within about 130m miles of the star – or just within the orbit of Mars. The comet is then expected to leave this solar system and head back out into the cosmos. Norris said: 'As it gets closer, it's expected to brighten, especially if it turns out to be a comet rather than an asteroid. By the time it makes its closest approach, it will be a relatively easy target for amateur astronomers to observe.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion For those who cannot wait that long, the Virtual Telescope Project, a network of robotic telescopes, is expecting to host a live feed on its YouTube channel from 11pm UK time on Thursday.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Fossils unlock 250-million-year-old mystery of the ‘Great Dying'
Some 252 million years ago, almost all life on Earth disappeared. Known as the Permian–Triassic mass extinction – or the Great Dying – this was the most catastrophic of the five mass extinction events recognised in the past 539 million years of our planet's history. Up to 94 per cent of marine species and 70 per cent of terrestrial vertebrate families were wiped out. Tropical forests – which served, as they do today, as important carbon sinks that helped regulate the planet's temperature – also experienced massive declines. Scientists have long agreed this event was triggered by a sudden surge in greenhouse gases which resulted in an intense and rapid warming of Earth. But what has remained a mystery is why these extremely hot conditions persisted for millions of years. Our new paper, published in Nature Communications, provides an answer. The decline of tropical forests locked Earth in a hothouse state, confirming scientists' suspicion that when our planet's climate crosses certain 'tipping points', truly catastrophic ecological collapse can follow. A massive eruption The trigger for the Permian–Triassic mass extinction event was the eruption of massive amounts of molten rock in modern day Siberia, named the Siberian Traps. This molten rock erupted in a sedimentary basin, rich in organic matter. The molten rock was hot enough to melt the surrounding rocks and release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere over a period as short as 50,000 years but possibly as long as 500,000 years. This rapid increase in carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and the resulting temperature increase is thought to be the primary kill mechanism for much of life at the time. On land it is thought surface temperatures increased by as much as 6°C to 10°C – too rapid for many life forms to evolve and adapt. In other similar eruptions, the climate system usually returns to its previous state within 100,000 to a million years. But these 'super greenhouse' conditions, which resulted in equatorial average surface temperatures upwards of 34°C (roughly 8°C warmer than the current equatorial average temperature) persisted for roughly five million years. In our study we sought to answer why. The forests die out We looked at the fossil record of a wide range of land plant biomes, such as arid, tropical, subtropical, temperate and scrub. We analysed how the biomes changed from just before the mass extinction event, until about eight million years after. We hypothesised that Earth warmed too rapidly, leading to the dying out of low- to mid-latitude vegetation, especially the rainforests. As a result the efficiency of the organic carbon cycle was greatly reduced immediately after the volcanic eruptions. Plants, because they are unable to simply get up and move, were very strongly affected by the changing conditions. Before the event, many peat bogs and tropical and subtropical forests existed around the equator and soaked up carbon. However, when we reconstructed plant fossils from fieldwork, records and databases around the event we saw that these biomes were completely wiped out from the tropical continents. This led to a multimillion year 'coal gap' in the geological record. These forests were replaced by tiny lycopods, only two to 20 centimetres in height. Enclaves of larger plants remained towards the poles, in coastal and in slightly mountainous regions where the temperature was slightly cooler. After about five million years they had mostly recolonised Earth. However these types of plants were also less efficient at fixing carbon in the organic carbon cycle. This is analogous in some ways to considering the impact of replacing all rainforests at present day with the mallee-scrub and spinifex flora that we might expect to see in the Australian outback. Finally, the forests return Using evidence from the present day, we estimated the rate at which plants take atmospheric carbon dioxide and store it as organic matter of each different biome (or its 'net primary productivity') that was suggested in the fossil record. We then used a recently developed carbon cycle model called SCION to test our hypothesis numerically. When we analysed our model results we found that the initial increase in temperature from the Siberian Traps was preserved for five to six million years after the event because of the reduction in net primary productivity. It was only as plants re-established themselves and the organic carbon cycle restarted that Earth slowly started to ease out of the super greenhouse conditions. Maintaining a climate equilibrium It's always difficult to draw analogies between past climate change in the geological record and what we're experiencing today. That's because the extent of past changes is usually measured over tens to hundreds of thousands of years while at present day we are experiencing change over decades to centuries. A key implication of our work, however, is that life on Earth, while resilient, is unable to respond to massive changes on short time scales without drastic rewirings of the biotic landscape. In the case of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction, plants were unable to respond on as rapid a time scale as 1,000 to 10,000 years. This resulted in a large extinction event. Overall, our results underline how important tropical and subtropical plant biomes and environments are to maintaining a climate equilibrium. In turn, they show how the loss of these biomes can contribute to additional climate warming – and serve as a devastating climate tipping point. Zhen Xu was the lead author of the study, which was part of her PhD work. Andrew Merdith is a DECRA Fellow at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide. Benjamin J. W. Mills is a Professor of Earth System Evolution at the University of Leeds. Zhen Xu is a Research Fellow at the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds.
STV News
5 hours ago
- STV News
Watch meteor blaze across sky and explode with 'sonic boom'
Stargazers across Scotland had a front row seat as a bright meteor was spotted in the night sky. On Wednesday night, a bright orange light was seen shooting across the sky, and a loud bang was also heard. People have reported seeing the meteor in Argyll and Bute as well as on the Isle of Lewis, Stirling, and Glasgow. Adrian Coll The object was seen by Adrian Coll while searching for his friend's missing dog at the roadside at Loch Long at Coulport Naval Base on Wednesday night. Meteors are bits of rock that burn up when they enter the Earth's atmosphere, creating streaking light across the sky. Hundreds of Scots took to social media to share pictures of the bright light, with some reporting hearing a loud bang they assumed was an 'earthquake'. Adrian Coll The object was seen by Adrian Coll at Loch Long at Coulport Naval Base. STV meteorologist Sean Batty said for a bang to be heard, the meteor was probably a piece of space rock bigger than a golf ball. Dr Cyrielle Opitom from the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Astronomy said the meteor looked 'fairly big' in nature. Norma Macleod The object, thought to be a meteor, was caught by Norma Macleod's CCTV on Wednesday night. Norma Macleod The object, thought to be a meteor, was caught by Norma Macleod's CCTV on Wednesday night. While meteors are not uncommon in Scotland, Dr Opitom said this one looks 'quite special' because of how bright it burned. 'We don't know if there are any meteorites that have landed on the ground yet, but it would be really exciting as we could recover the rock from space and analyse it,' she told STV News. Adrian Coll The object, thought to be a meteor, left a trail that was still visible on Thursday morning. 'All over Scotland and the UK, there are cameras from the Fireball Network, so I'm sure footage analysis is well under way. If there are meteorites, we can find them and work back their trajectory.' For a light streak and a bang (sonic boom), it's probably been a piece of space rock that was bigger than a golf ball. These bits of rock, which drift around space pepper planets occasionally when drawn in by their gravitational pull, but luckily, Earth has a protective layer (the atmosphere), which means many of these small rocks burn up and disintegrate on entry. However, sometimes the bigger ones, say bigger than a bowling ball, will burn up on entry, but because of it's size, some of it will survive the journey and reach the ground. With this one spotted last night, it's difficult to say exactly how big it may have been and whether any of it survived to reach the ground. The only way of knowing would be if someone found a piece, although it may have fallen into the sea. The big boom is the sonic boom created because of the speed the meteor enters the atmosphere. It's travelling at speeds way over the speed of sound, compressing the air and creating the boom we hear as it enters the atmosphere. It's the same sound we used to hear when Concorde entered the speed of sound as it headed out over the Atlantic. These sonic booms can sometimes be so intense that windows can shatter, although there have been no reports of that, so it's possible the most intense boom has been over the sea. There was a meteor in 2013 over Russia, which was estimated to be around 20 metres in size which created such a massive shock wave that thousands of buildings were damaged. A great spectacle for those who spotted it, but also thankfully, by the looks of it, something small enough to just put on a bit of a show. Larger meteors are the ones to worry about, which could cause immense damage were they to hit Earth, but the good news is most of the bigger ones are monitored and tracked, although occasionally one can pop up which has been hidden. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
