‘Zombie Stars’ Are Racing Across the Universe
BACK FROM THE DEAD
They’re among the weirdest objects in the sky and they could tell scientists a lot about how stars form and die—and, maybe, come back to life.
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center/NASA
Millions of years ago, tens of thousands of light-years away, two giant white stars brushed against each other.
Then they exploded.
That’s not unusual. Star explosions—aka supernovas—occur every century or so in our galaxy, the Milky Way. There are trillions of galaxies. Do the math. Across the incalculable breadth of the universe, supernovas probably occur at a rate of many millions per day.
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