The aftermath of a thermonuclear explosion in a double star system about 3,400 light-years away has been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
HM Sagittae, or simply HM Sge, is a so-called symbiotic system, in which a white dwarf feeds on a companion red giant star. The stolen material forms an accretion disk that swirls around the white dwarf. If too much material falls from the disk onto the white dwarf at once, the pressure and temperature become so high that a thermonuclear explosion detonates on the white dwarf's surface.
Although this explosion is not enough to destroy the white ...
