Hubble Discovers White Dwarf Merger Remnant with Unusual Carbon Signature

An international team of astronomers has discovered WD 0525+526, an unusual white dwarf about 128 light-years away, using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Unlike typical white dwarfs, this star formed through a stellar merger and shows an unexpectedly high carbon content. With a mass of 1.2 Suns and a scorching surface temperature of 21,000 K, the discovery suggests that such merger remnants may be more common than previously thought. Researchers believe these hidden stellar histories could reshape our understanding of white dwarf binaries and pathways to supernova explosions.