Rare cosmic explosion lights up UAE skies

Dubai: A rare cosmic explosion lit up the southern skies over the UAE this weekend, as astronomers at Al Khatim Astronomical Observatory, located in the Abu Dhabi desert, recorded the emergence of a bright new star, believed to be a nova, a powerful burst resulting from a stellar eruption.

The event, first detected on Thursday evening, June 12, was confirmed on Saturday night when a dazzling point of light, now designated AT 2025nlr, was spotted in the constellation Lupus, known in Arabic as ‘Al Sab’, or ‘The Seven’.

The star’s brightness, currently estimated at magnitude 8, places it just beyond the naked eye’s visibility, but well within reach using a small telescope from a dark location.

“This is not a common event,” said Mohammed Shawkat Odeh, director of Al Khatim Observatory. “The nova is relatively bright compared to most such phenomena, making it particularly important for amateur and professional astronomers alike.”

Al Khatim received an urgent request from a global astronomical network late Saturday to conduct photometric observations of the star, measuring its brightness through various filters.

The observatory responded immediately, aligning its main telescope with the coordinates of AT 2025nlr. The star's brightness was recorded at magnitude 7.7 in infrared, 8.2 in green, and 8.3 in blue, values that have since been transmitted to international research centres tracking the development of the event.

Novae, unlike supernovae, are not the deaths of stars but rather surface explosions that occur in binary star systems. As material from one star accretes onto its white dwarf companion, it triggers a thermonuclear eruption visible across vast distances.

However, because the nova lies deep in the southern celestial hemisphere, most observatories in Europe and North America are unable to observe it directly, increasing the strategic importance of facilities like Al Khatim.

The initial discovery of AT 2025nlr was made by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN), a global project operated by Ohio State University. ASAS-SN utilizes a fleet of 20 robotic telescopes spread across both hemispheres, capable of scanning the entire sky approximately once per day in search of transient phenomena such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and novae.

Huda Ata is an independent writer based in the UAE.