March 29, 2024

Purple space ‘lightning’ spews from stellar corpse, creating cosmic shock waves (photo, video)

A streak of purple “lightning” sprawls across the cosmos in a stunning new image from NASA.Light and energy twist and turn in an explosive relationship in between an excellent remains known as a white dwarf and a variable red giant star called R Aquarii (R Aqr) orbiting each other out in area. Eventually, when enough of this material builds up on the white dwarf, it sets off a surge that releases energy into space. This “lightning” is in fact the jet of energy beaming from the white dwarf and interacting with surrounding material.