TWO new stars have suddenly appeared in the night sky, caused by some of the most powerful explosions in the universe.
Two distant stellar explosions have burned so bright that we can now see them from Earth with the naked eye.
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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.”
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.
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Our solar system is made up of nine planets with Earth the third closest to the Sun. But each planet has its own quirks, so find out more about them all…
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