MG14 - Talk detail |
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Participant |
Santander-García, Miguel | |||||||
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Institution |
Instituto de ciencia de materiales (CSIC)/Observatorio Astronómico Nacional - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 3 - Madrid - Madrid - Spain | |||||||
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Session |
BN4 |
Accepted |
Yes |
Order |
5 |
Time |
15:40 | 20' |
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Talk |
Oral abstract |
Title |
Dying with style: merging white dwarfs can do it too | |||||
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Abstract |
Most stars in the Universe end their lives by ejecting and shaping their outer envelope into a beautiful cloud of gas known as a planetary nebula. A few of the remaining white dwarfs happen to be part of binary systems with the right conditions to die again as a type Ia supernovae, following a theoretical path known as the single-degenerate scenario. But this does not seem to be the only way a white dwarf can actually produce a supernova. I will present the case of Henize 2-428, where both stars have already ejected their planetary nebulae and are destined to merge in ~700 million years. This is the first double-degenerate system which has, without any ambiguity, a total mass above the Chandrasekhar limit, thus supporting the theoretical double-degenerate path of formation of type Ia supernovae. |
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Pdf file |
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