Figure 20-19: A Type Ia Supernova This series of illustrations depicts our understanding of how a white dwarf in a close binary system can undergo a sudden nuclear detonation that destroys it completely. Such a cataclysmic event is called a Type Ia supernova or thermonuclear supernova.

(Illustration by Don Dixon, adapted from Wolfgang Hillebrandt, Hans-Thomas Janka, and Ewald Müller, “How to Blow Up a Star,” Scientific American, October 2006)