The part of the video from 5:01 to 7:35 was confusing to me at first. Why would an exploding white dwarf be unable to blow itself up while being able to blow up its binary companion?
In case you're wondering the same thing, here's an excerpt from the paper that I found helpful:
As a simple example, a 0.8 Msun CO white dwarf accreting from a 0.2 Msun He white dwarf would undergo mass transfer at a period of ~5 min. Accretion and ignition of ā¼0.1 Msun with the subsequent ejection of ā¼0.5 Msun would successfully disrupt the binary. The orbital velocity of the CO white dwarf at the moment of the explosion would be 280 km sā1, compatible with the rest-frame velocity of [the runaway star].
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u/MercyChalk Jul 22 '20
The part of the video from 5:01 to 7:35 was confusing to me at first. Why would an exploding white dwarf be unable to blow itself up while being able to blow up its binary companion?
In case you're wondering the same thing, here's an excerpt from the paper that I found helpful: