Astronomers have discovered what they’re calling a zombie star, given its not completely dead and gone state.
Astronomers have discovered what they’re calling a zombie star, given its not completely dead and gone state.
They say that the dwarf star went through the fairly regular supernova self-destruction process, but ended being up worse for the wear rather than completely obliterated.
It wasn’t until 2012 that a team of researchers announced that such a thing was possible.
Typically, dying orbs in double star systems feed off of their healthy cohabitants until they explode into tiny bits.
That one ended up just a bit ‘battered and bruised’ caught scientists’ attention.
They started to dig through old Hubble Telescope photographs and found images of what the star system looked like in its pre-supernova days.
A closer look provided them with documentation of the actual star that was later only semi-demolished.
Finding this type of data for important but since-demolished supernovas is something that has previously eluded the space study community.
Through their study of this instance, astronomers hope to find out more about the special circumstances surrounding the rare type of explosion.
They also believe that there could be a lot more star zombies out there and have already identified several candidates.
