Surface Helium Detonation Spells End for White Dwarf

An international team of researchers has found evidence that the brightest stellar explosions in our Universe could be triggered by helium nuclear detonation near the surface of a white dwarf star. Using Hyper Suprime-Cam mounted on the Subaru Telescope, the team detected a type Ia supernova within a day after the explosion, and explained its behavior through a model calculated using the supercomputer ATERUI. This result was reported in Nature published on Oct. 5.

Links

• Surface Helium Detonation Spells End for White Dwarf (Subaru Telescope)
• Surface Helium Detonation Spells End for White Dwarf (Center for Computational Astrophysics)
• The helium explosion at the surface sets out the final journey of a dying star (The University of Tokyo)
• Violent helium reaction on white dwarf surface triggers supernova explosion (Kavli IPMU)
• The star that burns twice as bright (Kyoto University)