Rare Star Blast Fires Cosmic Gas Bullets Across Space At 20 Million MPH
Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to capture cosmic 'bullets' streaming from V445 Puppis, a unique stellar explosion in the Milky Way firing clumps of gas into space at a blistering 20 million miles per hour.
When V445 Puppis erupted in late 2000, it instantly stood out as the only confirmed helium nova ever detected within our galaxy. Standard novas occur when a white dwarf sucks hydrogen off a nearby binary companion until a runaway thermonuclear blast sets off on its surface (due to temperature and pressure changes). V445 Puppis is different: its companion star is a rare helium star that has already been stripped of its outer hydrogen layer, forcing the white dwarf to feed almost exclusively on helium instead.
For more than two decades, the full nature of this binary system remained behind a shroud of thick, expanding dust launched during the initial blast. As that circumstellar...
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