Just days after a nova appeared in the night sky, another joined it. V572 Velorum, in the constellation Vela, joins V462 Lupi in Lupus. Both are now visible to the naked eye to observers in the Southern Hemisphere and are currently shining millions of times brighter than usual. The remarkable coincidence — judged to be extremely rare by astronomers — has occurred as astronomers await the explosion of T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) in Corona Borealis, which is known to explode and shine brightly every 80 years or so.
A nova is a sudden, short-lived explosion from a compact star not much larger than Earth, according to NASA. Nova is Latin for new.
V572 Velorum is currently shining at magnitude +4.8 and V462 Lupi at magnitude +5.9, both within reach of the naked eye.
V572 Velorum was discovered on June 25 by astrophysicist John Seach in Grafton, New South Wales, Australia. “The nova has risen to magnitude 4.9 and is a naked-eye object,” wrote Seach on X (Twitter). “This is my 12th nova discovery and the first in 7.5 years.”
The star has become dramatically brighter since it exploded. According to astronomers in the U.K. and Poland, the star is usually magnitude +16.65, so it is currently shining 55,000 times brighter than usual.
V572 Velorum has since been studied by astronomers using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which orbits Earth. It confirmed that, as expected, the nova unleashed gamma rays, the most energetic form of light.
Astronomers estimate that between 20 and 50 novae occur each year in our galaxy, but most go undiscovered, according to NASA. Very few — typically zero — are visible to the naked eye. For two to appear at once is unprecedented. “This is without question an extremely rare event,” said Stephen O’Meara, an American astronomer, to Spaceweather.com. “I have yet to find an occurrence of two simultaneous nova appearing at the same time.”
It’s thought that both V572 Velorum and V462 Lupi are both classical novas. A classical nova occurs when a white dwarf — the dense core of a collapsed sun-like star — is orbited by a larger star. According to NASA, the white dwarf’s gravity pulls hot hydrogen from its companion, which builds up and triggers a thermonuclear blast. Unlike supernovas, which obliterate stars, novas are recurring events that only affect the outer layer of a white dwarf. These outbursts can make the system millions of times brighter.
Lithium is used to make lithium batteries and lithium-ion batteries, as well as heat-resistant glass and ceramics and mood-altering chemicals. Most of the lithium in our solar system and the wider Milky Way galaxy comes from classical nova explosions like V572 Velorum and V462 Lupi, according to a paper published in 2020. The same researchers previously discovered that novas contributed to the molecular cloud that formed the solar system.
