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If the pair is close to each other, the white dwarf can start leaching material from its companion.
Once the white dwarf siphons off enough mass to become 1.4 times heavier than our Sun – the so-called Chandrasekhar Limit – it will explode into a supernova.
Type II supernovas are more straightforward, they occur when a star at least eight times bigger than the Sun runs out of fuel to sustain its nuclear reactions.
When this happens, the star cools off and its outer layers start to collapse under the pressure of gravity.
NASA explained: “Imagine something one million times the mass of Earth collapse in 15 seconds.
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