Merging White Dwarfs Doomed to Ignite in Vast Supernova Explosion
Posted on February 9, 2015
Astronomers have spotted two massive stars merging in the heart of the planetary nebula Henize 2-482. The astronomers say the stars will get slowly closer and closer as they orbit each other. 700 million years from now they are expected to ignite in a huge Type Ia supernova explosion. An artist's impression of the central part of the planetary nebula Henize 2-428 is pictured above.
The two white dwarf stars have a mass of about 1.8 times that of the sun. They currently orbit each other every four hours. The astronomers are led by Miguel Santander-Garcia. Other astronomers involved in the study include and Henri Boffin, Romano Corradi and David Jones. The astronomers used telescopes in the Canary Islands in combination with ESO's Very Large Telescope.
Henri Boffin from ESO says in a statement, "When we looked at this object’s central star with ESO’s Very Large Telescope, we found not just one but a pair of stars at the heart of this strangely lopsided glowing cloud."
Jones says, "Until now, the formation of supernovae Type Ia by the merging of two white dwarfs was purely theoretical. The pair of stars in Henize 2-428 is the real thing!"
A research paper on the merging white dwarf stars can be found here in the journal Nature.