Meet the Superstar that Came Back Alive
Picture a star that q’sn survived a cosmic crash‑dump and came out looking brighter than the shiny morning after. That’s what the latest Hubble imaging has revealed in a fairly nearby galaxy.
It’s a White Dwarf – the Rebuke of an Overweight Star
White dwarfs are the noodly remnants left after a star blows off its outer layers. Think of a mass roughly equal to our Sun squeezed into a size that fits inside Earth. They’re the smiling, old cosmic relatives we’ll see in the sky in a few billion years.
It’s Not Alone – It’s Got a Partner in Crime
This particular white dwarf, living in a binary shuffle with a buddy, sucks up bits of its partner’s material. When it dumps in enough “fuel,” it hits a critical tipping point – about 1.4 times the Sun’s mass – and flips a cosmic switch.
Thermonuclear Fireworks
That switch? A nuclear blaze that turns the star into a supernova. Ordinary wisdom tells us the star should be vaporized. Except this one did the opposite.
The Surprising Twist
Lead author Curtis McCully was “beyond surprised” that the star was not shredded, but that it was actually glowing brighter after the blast.
During the scream of the supernova, radioactive stuff spun around. Some of it got left behind, and it acts like a hot cup of tea that fuels the star’s eye‑catching shine today.
Where It Lives
- Galaxy: NGC 1309
- Size: Two‑thirds the Milky Way’s dimension
- Shape: Pinwheel‑spun, the same way our galaxy looks from above
So the next time you stare at the night sky, remember that the universe still has a few “zombie” surprises ready to flash back at us. Happy stargazing!
<img alt="" data-caption="A handout photo. This image (left) shows the spiral galaxy NGC 1309 before the explosion of a white dwarf star called Supernova 2012Z. Right: Clockwise from top right: the position of the supernova pre-explosion; Supernova 2012Z pictured in 2013; the difference between the pre-explosion images and 2016 observations; the location of the supernova in the latest observations in 2016.
PHOTO: Reuters.” data-entity-type=”file” data-entity-uuid=”7752bb42-9c67-4fad-8329-55ffd4ccee76″ src=”/sites/default/files/inline-images/KIJBQR4YU5LVJKGEGF5F7KKYOA_0.jpeg”/>
Meet the Zombie Star That’s Been Staring Right at a Studio Audience
Picture this: a tiny (just a few centimeters) star tucked away 108 million light‑years away from us. Light in that far‑out region travels about 5.9 trillion miles in a single year, so that’s a heck of a journey for photons. This star is no ordinary space fluff; it’s a white dwarf, the dense, collapsed core of a once‑fading star. And it’s turned into a cosmic riddle for astronomers.
What Makes a Supernova Rock?
- Size matters. Bigger stars explode more violently.
- Composition counts. Carbon and oxygen are the lead singers in many death‑concerts.
- Power plays a role. The energy unleashed changes the whole narrative.
Our white dwarf is a student of the Type Iax subclass, a quirky cousin of the typical supernova family. In this scenario the star goes into a frantic chemical frenzy when it steals a little extra matter from its partner. The fusion of carbon and oxygen blows up the star, but—plot twist—it doesn’t crumble entirely.
Zombies in the Cosmos
Because the white dwarf survives the blast, these intriguing remnants get dubbed “zombie stars.” Scientists call them that for a reason: they died in one sense but kept living on. Early computer simulations of Type Iax supernovae would often get stuck before fully exploding the star. That hiccup was a clear hint that the reality baffled our models.
“We’ve been calling these come-ups ‘zombie stars’ because they’re the oddball survivors,” says Dr. McCully. “The fizzles in our simulations were actually mortarry on the physics of these explosions.”
The Great Hunt
So far, astronomers have counted around 50 Type Iax supernovae—like well‑behaved fireflies. The elusive “zombie star” has slipped under their radar until now. This latest discovery fills a missing piece in the cosmic puzzle that’s as exciting as finding a secret level in a video game.
Why Doesn’t Our Sun Join the Zombie Club?
Our solar system’s sun is slated to end its life as a nice, boring white dwarf. That’s the destiny for over 97% of stars in the universe. When a sun‑type star runs out of core fuel it collapses and the outer layers puff out like a stellar ex‑plane, leaving a dense core—its white dwarf.
However, the sun lacks a companion willing to decide the match‑making dance needed for a Type Iax supernova. Without that extra material, the sun’s future is very far from “zombie.” It will simply retire into quiet whiteness.
In a Nutshell
- A white dwarf 108 million light‑years away now tops the charts as a Type Iax supernova.
- These blasts leave behind “zombie stars” that live on after the show.
- Scientists have finally spotted one of these undead remnants.
- Our sun, unfortunately, has no partner to turn it into a zombie superstar.
So the next time you look up at the night sky, think of that stubborn white dwarf—keeping its cool in the cosmos like a true survivor, all while sending clues out to the universe about how stars die, and sometimes don’t finish the job entirely.