Joseph Baxendell and the Blaze Star
On
May 12th 1866 Baxendell together with several other
astronomers discovered a bright star appear in the constellation of
Corona Borealis. This was a nova and it reached a magnitude of 2.0
which is as bright as bright as the North Star.
The
word Nova comes from the Latin meaning New when in the middle ages
astronomers thought these were new stars being created.
A
nova is not a new star but a double star system one small hot star
and one larger but less massive star, the hot small star pulls gas
from the less massive star this will fall onto the hot surface and be
thrown into space. The star then brightens and appears in the sky,
this is a nova.
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| Nova System |
There
is every possibility that he may have seen it a few days earlier on
May 7th when he was checking all known variable stars to
naked eye visibility.
The
nova later designated T Corona Borealis would become known as the
Blaze Star because in 1946 it went novae again and it reached
magnitude 3.0. This was the first nova known to do this . It became
the first of what astronomers now call re current novae, although
Baxendell could not know of this.
Astronomers
now know that all nova are recurrent and that they can brighten up
over a period of decades or centuries.
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