Astronomers recently confirmed something they’ve long believed – that dead stars can still become supernovas.

Astronomers recently confirmed something they’ve long believed – that dead stars can still become supernovas.

Their observations and calculations show that white dwarfs can ignite again and then explode in a truly massive fashion.

It’s long been suspected that this was happening throughout the universe, so much so that for several years the scientists have been amassing equipment to prove it.

The problem was there were no appropriate explosions to study.

That changed in January of 2014 when students from University College London detected a supernova of the rare variety that involved a white dwarf star.

Within a week quest for telltale evidence began.

Scientists were specifically looking for cobalt decay, as it would serve as definitive proof that a white dwarf had blown.

That’s exactly what they found, and in the specific quantities they estimated would be present.

The researchers went on to determine the cause of the blast, which ended up not being at all what they’d anticipated.

Rather than succumbing to the nuclear fusion of interacting with a companion star which has been the prevailing theory, they believe the nearby star’s gas belt triggered an internal reaction that led to the white dwarf’s explosion.