exploding

Space & Cosmos

From collisions to stellar cannibalism – the incredible variety of exploding white dwarfs

The Palomar 48-inch telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California features images of the Milky Way in the background. Stars represent the number of supernovas discovered in each direction, with the inset being an image of a galaxy (left) and (right) supernova exploded (right). Credit: Mickael Rigault. Astrophysicists evaluated almost 4,000 such events, which were photographed in detail by next-generation…