Hubble finds evidence of a white dwarf’s companion

This could signal an end to a debate about Type Ia supernovae progenitors.

Type Ia supernovae are explosions that signify a white dwarf — a type of stellar remnant — meeting its irrevocable end. A recent image obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of a Type Ia supernova in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is now helping astronomers better understand the processes that lead up to such an explosion.

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Have they spotted any white dwarf pairs where one blew up the other?

> This could signal an end to a debate about Type Ia supernovae progenitors.

Not likely. There are two hypotheses and both are impossible.

Everyone agrees that a Type 1a supernova explosion is caused by a white dwarf swallowing mass from a companion. The debate is over whether the companion is a regular star or a white dwarf. It doesn’t have to be the same in every case.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Hubble finds evidence of a white dwarf’s companion

This could signal an end to a debate about Type Ia supernovae progenitors.

Type Ia supernovae are explosions that signify a white dwarf — a type of stellar remnant — meeting its irrevocable end. A recent image obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of a Type Ia supernova in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is now helping astronomers better understand the processes that lead up to such an explosion.

more…

This paper is some preliminary work on the same supernova remnant in 2015. At that time there were quite a few possibilities for a companion but none identified with certainty.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1501.00517