A rare collision of dead stars can bring a new one to life
Despite surfaces covered in carbon and oxygen, helium still burns in the stars’ cores
![illustration of two white dwarf stars merging](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/021722_no_starmerger_feat.jpg?fit=1030%2C580&ssl=1)
A carbon-and-oxygen-rich star with a helium-burning core may rise out of the merging of two dead stars called white dwarfs (illustrated).
Nicole Reindl (CC BY 4.0)