Diet of a dying star

Astronomers pinpoint what feeds a type of stellar explosion

AUSTIN, Texas — Scientists are beginning to sort out the stellar ingredients that produce a type 1a supernova, a type of cosmic explosion that has been used to measure the universe’s accelerating expansion.

The explosion of the white dwarf star that produced supernova remnant SNR0509-67.5 (shown) may have been fueled by material sucked from another white dwarf, a recent study suggests.