, the dense"stellar corpses" left behind when small and medium stars run out of fuel to burn.
And yet, because of the size and temperatures of these two stars, astronomers believe these objects are still burning helium. But usually, stars sport the light elements hydrogen and helium at their surfaces, not the much heavier carbon and oxygen.
"Usually, white dwarf mergers do not lead to the formation of stars enriched in carbon and oxygen," Miller Bertolami said,"but we believe that, for binary systems formed with very specific masses, a carbon- and oxygen-rich white dwarf might be disrupted and end up on top of a helium-rich one, leading to the formation of these stars."
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