Pictures of a distant supernova remnant show two concentric rings, providing clear evidence that exploding white dwarf stars go boom twice in the blink of an eye

"This tangible evidence of a double detonation not only contributes towards solving a long-standing mystery, but also offers a visual spectacle."

In a stunning first-ever image, astronomers have seen a star that died by exploding twice. They pointed the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) at supernova SNR 0509-67.5,