Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2015

SPACE CHRONICLES Stellar partnership doomed to end in catastrophe by ESO terial to ignite a vast supernova ex- plosion. The team of astronomers, led by Miguel Santander-García (Observatorio Astronómico Nacio- nal, Alcalá de Henares, Spain; Insti- tuto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), Madrid, Spain), has ingly massive stars at the heart of the planetary nebula Henize 2-428. As they orbit each other the two stars are expected to slowly get closer and closer, and when they merge, about 700 million years from now, they will contain enough ma- A stronomers using ESO facil- ities in combination with telescopes in the Canary Islands have identified two surpris- T his image of the unusual planetary nebula Henize 2-428 was obtained using ESO’s Very Large Telescope at the Para- nal Observatory in Chile. In the heart of this colourful nebula lies a unique object consisting of two white dwarf stars, each with a mass a little less than that of the Sun. These stars are expected to slowly draw closer to each other and merge in around 700 million years. This event will create a dazzling supernova of Type Ia and destroy both stars. [ESO]