Super Supernova: White Dwarf Star System Exceeds Mass Limit

Cosmologists use Type Ia supernovae—the violent explosions of dead cores of stars called white dwarfs—as a kind of cosmic ruler to measure distances to the supernovae’s host galaxies and, as such, to understand the past and future expansion of the universe and explore the nature of dark energy. Until recently, it was thought that white dwarfs could not exceed what is known as the Chandrasekhar limit, a critical mass equaling about 1.4 times that of the Sun, before exploding in a supernova. This uniform limit is a key tool in measuring distances to supernovae...

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