Observations of
the explosions of white dwarf stars in binary systems, so - called Type Ia supernovae, in the 1990s then led scientists to the conclusion that a third component, dark energy, made up 68 % of the cosmos, and is responsible for driving an acceleration in the expansion of the universe.
Neither study searched for the stars responsible for so - called type Ia supernovae, which are
explosions of white dwarf stars that have grown overweight by feasting on material from a companion star.
Known as 2014J, this was a Type la supernova caused by
the explosion of a white dwarf star, the inner core of star once it has run out of nuclear fuel and ejected its outer layers.
Not exact matches
Imagine being able to view microscopic aspects
of a classical nova, a massive stellar
explosion on the surface
of a
white dwarf star (about as big as Earth), in a laboratory rather than from afar via a telescope.
Type Iax supernovae may be caused by the partial destruction
of a
white dwarf star in such an
explosion.
Type Ia supernovae are caused by the complete destruction
of a
white dwarf star in a thermonuclear
explosion.
Professor Mould and his PhD student Syed Uddin at the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and the ARC Centre
of Excellence for All - sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) assumed that these supernova
explosions happen when a
white dwarf reaches a critical mass or after colliding with other
stars to «tip it over the edge».
Both occur in systems where two
stars orbit each other: a
white dwarf sucks away the outer layers
of a larger companion
star until the smaller
star reaches a critical mass, causing an
explosion.
My research concentrates on the study
of exploding
stars — mainly nova outbursts caused by thermonuclear
explosions on the surface
of white dwarfs in binary
star systems.
Type Ia supernovae are fairly rare in the nearby Universe and represent the
explosion of at least one
white dwarf star in a binary system.
This animation shows the
explosion of a
white dwarf, an extremely dense remnant
of a
star that can no longer burn nuclear fuel at its core.
Archival work,
of course, isn't exactly what most scientists dream to be doing at NASA, so in 1999 Dr. Livio began shifting his research, focusing on black holes, acceleration
of mass,
white dwarves, neutron
stars and particularly on supernova
explosions.