https://www.spacescoop.org/en/scoops/2313/tune-in-to-the-supernova-radio/

For the first time ever, astronomers have detected radio waves coming from a Type Ia supernova! This ‘special radio broadcast’ might carry clues to solve a longtime puzzle - how white dwarfs really explode! Type Ia supernovae are exploding white dwarfs that have stripped material off of a binary companion.

 

Single white dwarfs, ones without a binary companion, rarely explode. They’d have to accrete material from somewhere. With no binary companion it’s hard to imagine where the gas would come from.

So Type 1a supernovae basically always happen in binary systems.

 

Astronomers think that in the presence of a nearby companion star, the white dwarf, with its super strong gravity, pulls material from the companion star’s outer layers, a process called ‘accretion’. The dwarf pulls the gas from its companion when it’s closest to it in its elliptical orbit. Then it orbits a bit farther away and the accretion stops for a time.

 

Rinse & repeat for a few billion years…

 

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