In our skies there is a new visible celestial object also with the naked eye: it is the Nova V462 Lupi which, after exploding in the Constellation of the wolfreached a brightness in a few days that they can be observed by the earth naked eye.
The explosion had already been detected on June 12 by the instruments of theAll-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae of the University of Ohio, but the new bright point had one apparent magnitude +8.7still too weak to be seen without appropriate tools. In the following days, however, the brightness has increased until it reaches a value of +5.7enough to be seen with a naked eye in particularly clean skies, but only in the southern hemisphere.
For the moment, therefore, the Nova V462 Lupi will not be easily visible from Italybut some observations have already been recorded from North America, especially in locations such as Arizona and California and in the Region of Lake Superior, on the border between Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. In any case, events of this type are particularly rareespecially those visible to the naked eye, but represent an important opportunity to study compact binary systems.
What is a nova
Nova is the result of anstellar explosion which occurs in compact binary systems, where one massive white dwarf (what remains after the death of a star like the sun) and one red giant (an intermediate mass star in an advanced phase of his life) orbit at a particularly close distance. White dwarfs being very small and dense have one severity extremely high Compared to that of his partner, who has a comparable mass but is much more rarefied: this allows the white dwarf to attract the material from the Star to him.
This accumulated material thus forms an increase in growth around the white dwarf, which deposits on its surface: at that point, accumulations of material on the surface of the white dwarf can occur which increase the pressure and density enough to trigger one explosive thermonuclear reaction which, however, is not violent enough to destroy the entire white dwarf (this takes place in some types of supernovae). Just the energy released by this explosion causes a abrupt increase in brightnessin this case visible to the naked eye also from the earth: for us it is as if that star had suddenly “appeared” in the sky!
How can it be observed from the earth
On June 12, 2025, the Nova V462 Lupi was sighted for the first time, thanks to the tools of the ASAS-SN (All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae). After being indicated with some temporary names, including Acts 2025nl and ASASSN-25CM, Nova was officially renamed as V462 Lupi last June 16th.
On June 18 he then reached his peak of brightness, with an apparent magnitude of +5.7: this made it 4 million times brighter of its progenitor star. La Nova exploded in Constellation of the wolflocated in the south of the Milky Way between the constellation of the centaur and that of Scorpio: this constellation is visible mainly by theboreal hemispherebut in some cases it can also be observed by some more northern latitudes, especially in the hours following sunset and near the south horizon.
In any case, being his declination of 40 ° sit is particularly difficult to observe Nova from Northern Italy (which is located at 45th north of latitude) since it is too low on the horizon. Even the chances of seeing it from Southern Italy are scarce, but with a good binoculars it could be possible to intercept it in the sky.
