Rapid supernova could be new class of exploding star

BERKELEY, CA—An unusual supernova rediscovered in seven-year-old data taken at the W. M. Keck Observatory and Lick Observatory may be the first example of a new type of exploding star, possibly in a binary star system where helium flows from one white dwarf onto another and detonates in a thermonuclear explosion. In a paper first published online Nov. 5 in Science Express, astronomer Dovi Poznanski, of the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and his colleagues describe supernovae SN 2002bj and review the data that suggest it is a new type of stellar explosion. The…