A supernova may seem like a pretty final fate, but now astronomers have discovered a star that apparently survived this explosive process. It wasn’t without consequence, however – the star was kicked out of a tight binary orbit and flung across the galaxy.

An artist’s rendering of a supernova kicking a white dwarf star into high speed, rather than destroying it

The star in question is a white dwarf called SDSS J1240+6710, which was discovered in 2015. At the time, astronomers noted that the object had an unusual composition. While white dwarfs typically have atmospheres made mostly of hydrogen and helium, this one had neither – instead it was made up of an odd combination of oxygen, neon, magnesium and silicon.

On closer inspection with the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers from the University of Warwick have found that the star is much stranger than previously thought. The researchers spotted signs of carbon, sodium and aluminum in its atmosphere, and its mass was found to be very small – only about 40 percent that of the Sun.

Weirder still, this star is absolutely pelting through the Milky Way. The scientists measured its velocity and found that it’s traveling at around 900,000 km/h (560,000 mph).

“All of these facts imply that it must have come from some kind of close binary system and it must have undergone thermonuclear ignition,” says Boris Gaensicke, lead author of the study. “It would have been a type of supernova, but of a kind that that we haven’t seen before.”

https://newatlas.com/space/white-dwarf-star-survives-supernova/

PermeateFree said:

A supernova may seem like a pretty final fate, but now astronomers have discovered a star that apparently survived this explosive process. It wasn’t without consequence, however – the star was kicked out of a tight binary orbit and flung across the galaxy.

An artist’s rendering of a supernova kicking a white dwarf star into high speed, rather than destroying it

The star in question is a white dwarf called SDSS J1240+6710, which was discovered in 2015. At the time, astronomers noted that the object had an unusual composition. While white dwarfs typically have atmospheres made mostly of hydrogen and helium, this one had neither – instead it was made up of an odd combination of oxygen, neon, magnesium and silicon.

On closer inspection with the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers from the University of Warwick have found that the star is much stranger than previously thought. The researchers spotted signs of carbon, sodium and aluminum in its atmosphere, and its mass was found to be very small – only about 40 percent that of the Sun.

Weirder still, this star is absolutely pelting through the Milky Way. The scientists measured its velocity and found that it’s traveling at around 900,000 km/h (560,000 mph).

“All of these facts imply that it must have come from some kind of close binary system and it must have undergone thermonuclear ignition,” says Boris Gaensicke, lead author of the study. “It would have been a type of supernova, but of a kind that that we haven’t seen before.”

https://newatlas.com/space/white-dwarf-star-survives-supernova/

Ejection Nova ?

> A supernova may seem like a pretty final fate, but now astronomers have discovered a star that apparently survived this explosive process. It wasn’t without consequence, however – the star was kicked out of a tight binary orbit and flung across the galaxy.

It has been hypothesised that all hypervelocity stars were given a kick out of the galaxy in this way.

Think of it like this. A large percentage of stars are binary. When a star goes supernova it gives its binary companion a big kick in speed.

So far as I know, none of these hypervelocity stars have yet been linked back to a specific observed supernova remnant.