Collision of Two White Dwarf Stars Offers Clues About Rare Cosmic Events – The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal

      

The collision of two dying stars, known as white dwarfs, around 1.3 billion years ago has produced a star heavier than the sun with a rare carbon-rich atmosphere, a development that — if confirmed — could help astronomers better understand the cosmic events that made life on earth possible.

The massive star is one of a handful of merged white dwarfs to be identified so far, and the first to be discovered by the composition of gases in its atmosphere, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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