Hubble telescope uncovers rare star born from cosmic collision: 'A very different history from what we would have guessed'

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that a seemingly ordinary white dwarf star is actually the result of a dramatic stellar merger.

This result, detailed in a new study led by Snehalata Sahu and Boris Gaensicke of the University of Warwick in the U.K., suggests that other "normal-looking" white dwarfs scattered throughout the universe could also have violent pasts.

"It's a discovery that underlines things may be different from what they appear to us at first glance," Gaensicke, study co-author and a professor of physics at the University of Warwick who serves as the principal investigator of the Hubble program, said in a statement. "Until now, this appeared as a normal white dwarf, but Hubble's ultraviolet vision revealed that it had a very different history from