Astronomers Found 3 ‘Zombie’ Stars That Came Back to Life After Supernova

Stars aren’t supposed to come back to life after the death throes of the supernova stage, but astronomers have spotted three that have done just that – surviving the catastrophic explosion that usually marks the end of a star’s life, and heading off through the galaxy on a new adventure.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Astronomers Found 3 ‘Zombie’ Stars That Came Back to Life After Supernova

Stars aren’t supposed to come back to life after the death throes of the supernova stage, but astronomers have spotted three that have done just that – surviving the catastrophic explosion that usually marks the end of a star’s life, and heading off through the galaxy on a new adventure.

more…

Title sounds like movie stars and Comic Con.

Before reading link, are we talking about supernova imposters here, like Eta Carina, or about binary stars ejected in a supernova?

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Astronomers Found 3 ‘Zombie’ Stars That Came Back to Life After Supernova

Stars aren’t supposed to come back to life after the death throes of the supernova stage, but astronomers have spotted three that have done just that – surviving the catastrophic explosion that usually marks the end of a star’s life, and heading off through the galaxy on a new adventure.

more…

Title sounds like movie stars and Comic Con.

Before reading link, are we talking about supernova imposters here, like Eta Carina, or about binary stars ejected in a supernova?

“Our new observations strongly support the interpretation that the new stars, like LP 40-365, are the partly burnt white dwarf accretors that survived disruption from a thermonuclear supernova in a single-degenerate scenario,” write the researchers.

2 white dwarfs

Paper

Partly burnt runaway stellar remnants from peculiar thermonuclear supernovae
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/mnras/stz1618/5521904

Tau.Neutrino said:

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Astronomers Found 3 ‘Zombie’ Stars That Came Back to Life After Supernova

Stars aren’t supposed to come back to life after the death throes of the supernova stage, but astronomers have spotted three that have done just that – surviving the catastrophic explosion that usually marks the end of a star’s life, and heading off through the galaxy on a new adventure.

more…

Title sounds like movie stars and Comic Con.

Before reading link, are we talking about supernova imposters here, like Eta Carina, or about binary stars ejected in a supernova?

“Our new observations strongly support the interpretation that the new stars, like LP 40-365, are the partly burnt white dwarf accretors that survived disruption from a thermonuclear supernova in a single-degenerate scenario,” write the researchers.

2 white dwarfs

Paper

Partly burnt runaway stellar remnants from peculiar thermonuclear supernovae
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/mnras/stz1618/5521904

I’m still not clear whether these stars just accreted material from an adjacent supernova in the other half of the binary, or whether they themselves had a supernova that stalled part way through.