A team of astronomers has discovered that a binary star system around 150 light-years from Earth is destined for a spectacular collision 23 billion years from now, resulting in a Type Ia supernova. This finding confirms a theoretical prediction that the precursor to most Type Ia supernovae is not one white dwarf, but two in a binary system.
The discovery was made by astrophysicist James Munday of Warwick University, who found the signature of a binary white dwarf in data from the DBL survey. The binary system, WDJ181058.67+311940.94, has a combined mass of around 1.56 times the mass of the Sun and an orbital period of over 14 hours.
As eons pass, the orbits of the two stars will gradually decay, bringing them closer together until they collide in a Type Ia supernova. This event is predicted to occur within our galaxy, providing scientists with their first concrete evidence that allows them to directly trace Type Ia supernovae to white dwarf binaries.
The discovery has significant implications for understanding the origin of Type Ia supernovae and their role in seeding the Universe with heavy elements. It also provides a new tool for measuring distances out into the Universe, utilizing the specific brightness peak of these explosions.
With this finding, scientists can now credit a few percent of the rate of Type Ia supernovae in the Milky Way to double white dwarf systems, which was previously zero. The research has been published in Nature Astronomy and offers new hope for understanding one of the most enigmatic events in the Universe.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/rare-star-doomed-to-explode-finally-confirms-astronomical-prediction