The first possible mention of a second nova exploding next year has been found in a medieval manuscript. The northern Corona T star, or “flaming star”, is one of several new known iterations. It consists of a red giant and a white dwarf, pumping gas from its massive companion. Approximately every 80 years this leads to an “explosion” accompanied by an increase in the star’s brightness.

Astronomers observed such flares twice, in 1866 and 1946. But Louisiana State University astronomer Bradley Schaefer is confident that historical documents preserve earlier evidence of this explosion.

In 1217, a German monk looked at the starry sky in the southwest and noticed that a normally faint star was shining with unusual brightness. It continued to burn for several days. The following record about this event remained in the chronicle of the Ursberg Monastery: “A wonderful sign was seen.” The monk noted that the mysterious object in the Northern Crown constellation “shined with a bright light” for days.

Bradley Schaefer is confident that this is the first documented evidence of the new Northern Crown T. He notes the potential coincidence of the period, as well as the location of the bright object in the same region of the sky where the binary star is located. This makes it impossible for monks to observe a supernova because such explosions leave remnants that can be preserved to this day.

The researcher added that other possible objects (a planet or comet) also did not correspond to the entry in the manuscript. None of the visible planets can be in this region of the sky, and in the event of a comet being observed, the monks point to the presence of a “tail” on the star. In addition, the monks of that time already knew about comets, which were considered harbingers of the apocalypse, and they would hardly call it a “wonderful sign.”

Another possible mention of the same star is preserved in the records of the English astronomer Francis Wollaston. In 1787 he described the behavior of a new star whose coordinates corresponded almost exactly to the position T of the Northern Corona in the sky.

The next explosion of this nova is expected to occur at the end of 2024. Once this happens, astronomers will be ready to observe and study the star’s behavior. But archival records will help to learn more about its history, clarify predictions and describe the possible future behavior of the binary system. Source