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The Micronova

Most stars in our galaxy are in a binary pair, meaning the system is made up of more than one star, unlike our own Sun, that is alone.

Eventually, one of those stars not large enough to go supernova, ends it's fusion life by shrinking to a white dwarf, but remains gravitationally bound to the other stars in its system.

If a white dwarf is particularly close to one of it's binary partners, it begins to funnel material from it, and as it does, it increases in mass.

For the largest white dwarfs, this has a high chance of leading to what is known as a type 1a Supernova, creating an explosion that can last for many months, expending more energy over this period than our own Sun will in the entire 10 billion years of life.

For white dwarfs not quite so large in mass, and under certain circumstances, the material being pulled from the star, will engulf the white dwarf, and as it falls onto the surface of the star, begins to fuse and causes all the material on the surface to ignite in one instance. Once the material is fused, the white dwarf begins once again to build up material. This is known as a Nova, and like Supernova, can light up for months before returning back to the original brightness.

Astronomers have recently found evidence of a new type of explosion on white dwarfs, and they have called it a Micronova.

In this situation, similar to the Nova, material collects around the white dwarf, however, due to strong magnetic fields, the material pools around the poles, and then is ignited only at the poles, leading to a much smaller, but noticeable explosion.

It is thought that even though this is a mini explosion in the realms of stars, it still consumes enough material equivalent to 3.5 billion Great Pyramids of Giza of stellar material in only a few hours.