On 5/17/11 1:16 AM, Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 16/05/2011 7:29 PM, palsing wrote:
I find it curious that the article you referenced states that "in this
case, the white dwarfs will actually reignite nuclear fusion, creating
a brand new star just like our Sun", since our sun still has most of
the hydrogen it started with and these guys have none... but perhaps
I'm missing something here.

The article listed white dwarfs in the range of 0.43 for primary and
0.17 for secondary. The primary would be a carbon-oxygen WD and the
secondary would be a helium WD. The helium being deposited on the
surface as the secondary is ripped apart can then restart helium fusion
due to the combined gravity of the merged WD.

Yousuf Khan

We are dealing with degenerate matter here--the fusion will be
a run-a-way blowing the thing to smithereens.