A new set of predictions for the so-called “blaze star,” T Corona Borealis suggests the star might go nova on either March 27, November 10, or June 25, 2026. However, other astronomers are skeptical about these predictions, which are based on an implied pattern in the explosive system’s orbital configuration.

T CrB is a symbiotic binary, a vampire system in which a white dwarf is siphoning material from a red giant star. A white dwarf is the dense, compact core remnant of a once sun-like star, packing a mass equivalent to that of a star into a volume about the size of Earth. A red giant represents an earlier stage in a star’s evolution, when a sun-like star starts to run out of its hydrogen fuel supply and begins to swell. Its distended atmosphere then becomes easy prey to the gravity of the far smaller, but denser, white dwarf.