A once-in-a-lifetime celestial explosion may be near — and Canadians can see it

A once-in-a-lifetime celestial event may be nearing — and Canadians will be able to see when it does.

The binary star T Corona Borealis is set to go nova — which it does every 80 years — before September.

The star is normally too faint to see with the naked eye but the explosion, when it occurs, will be nearly as bright as the North Star, according to NASA.

“This is a real, live stellar laboratory where we can look at… all sorts of astrophysical interesting processes,” York University professor emeritus of physics and astronomy Paul Delaney told Global News.