Starship Asterisk*

X-ray (blue): NASA/CXC/Tokyo Univ. of Science/K. Fukushima, et al.; IR (yellow and green): NASA/JPL/Spitzer; Radio (red): CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA

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White dwarfs are among the most stable of stars. Left on their own, these stars that have exhausted most of their nuclear fuel — while still typically as massive as the Sun — and shrunk to a relatively small size can last for billions or even trillions of years.

However, a white dwarf with a nearby companion star can become a cosmic powder keg. If the companion's orbit brings it too close, the white dwarf can pull material from it until the white dwarf grows so much that it becomes unstable and explodes. This kind of stellar blast is called a Type Ia supernova.

While it is generally accepted by astronomers that such encounters between white dwarfs and "normal" companion stars are one likely source of Type Ia supernova explosions, many details of the process are not well understood. One way to investigate the explosion mechanism is to look at the elements left behind by the supernova in its debris or ejecta.

This new composite image shows G344.7-0.1, a supernova remnant created by a Type Ia supernova, through the eyes of different telescopes. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) have been combined with infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (yellow and green) as well as radio data from the NSF's Very Large Array and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's Australia Telescope Compact Array (red). ...

• Astrophysical Journal 897(1):62 (2020 Jul 01) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab94a6
• arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:2005.09664 > 19 May 2020 (v1), 06 Jul 2020 (v3)