As they orbit each another, material from the red giant sloughs off, falls into the white dwarf and heats up in a process known as accretion. But there is a limit as to how much the white dwarf can take. Once that limit is reached, it erupts in a thermonuclear explosion called a nova.
I love that the reason they explode, and always at a specific power level, is that if you put any more matter onto it, the electrons would have to move faster than the speed of light, and that shit ain’t allowed.
A type 1A supernova, by the sounds of it.
I love that the reason they explode, and always at a specific power level, is that if you put any more matter onto it, the electrons would have to move faster than the speed of light, and that shit ain’t allowed.
Actually, no. This is just a nova, not a supernova.
What is the difference between a nova and a supernova?
Edit: Wikipedia seems to classify Type Ia under “super”-nova…
The cape
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova