There’s more than one way for a star to die. Some go with a whimper, and some go with a very, very big bang.
By Phil Plait
Very soon now, possibly in a few days, though more likely in the next few weeks, a new star will appear in our sky—except it’s really an old star. Called T Coronae Borealis (or T Cor Bor), it’s a binary system composed of a huge red giant star and a tiny white dwarf. Though small, white dwarfs are vicious: They pack much of a solar-type star’s mass into an approximately Earth-sized sphere. This makes them terrifically dense and hot, and they possess a fierce gravitational attraction.
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