From DiscoverMagazine.com

A supernova — an exploding star — is among the brightest single objects in the known Universe. A supernova can release as much energy in a single second as the Sun will in a thousand years.
Most people think of supernovae as massive stars exploding at the end of their lives, but there is another kind. When the Sun finally dies in a few billion more years, it will shed most of the material making up its outer layers, revealing the white-hot, dense core. This superhot ball will have half the mass of the Sun in it, but only be the size of the Earth. We call such a thing a white dwarf.
If a white dwarf orbits a normal star like the Sun, it can draw material off. This matter piles up on the surface and can eventually detonate like a stellar thermonuclear bomb. We call these Type Ia supernovae.

Continue Reading in Discover Magazine.

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