In other cases, another member of the system will go on to form a second white dwarf. If gravitational instabilities bring these two objects together, then their collision will create a single object with a much higher mass. This will also restart fusion, leading to an explosion.

The explosion of a star, called a supernova, is an immensely violent event. It usually involves a star more than eight times the mass of our sun that exhausts its nuclear fuel and undergoes a core collapse,

An explosion captured in a new image could help astronomers to better understand the "standard candles" at the center of a major cosmological mystery.

MUSE allows astronomers to map the distribution of different chemical elements, displayed here in different colours. Calcium is shown in blue, and it is arranged in two concentric shells. These two layers indicate that the now-dead star exploded with a double-detonation.

"This tangible evidence of a double detonation not only contributes towards solving a long-standing mystery, but also offers a visual spectacle."

Astronomers have finally caught a dying star in space going out with a bang — and then another bang. The new photographic evidence, captured using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile,

Pictures of a distant supernova remnant show two concentric rings, providing clear evidence that exploding white dwarf stars go boom twice in the blink of an eye

This kind of supernova is also the primary source of iron on our planet — meaning even the iron in human blood has supernova origins. But what if the white dwarf’s cosmic dance ends in more than just one big boom?

For the first time, astronomers have obtained visual evidence that a star met its end by detonating twice. By studying the centuries-old remains of supernova SNR 0509-67.5 with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT),