ICTS

Type Ia supernovae are bright transients which can briefly outshine an entire galaxy of stars. They have long been believed to be caused by exploding white dwarfs (WD), though the observational evidence in direct support of this view has emerged only recently. At present, there is no concordance between existing models and observations. However, a variety of observational constraints favors the double-degenerate channel (with two WDs in a binary) as the primary channel for the majority of typical Type Ia supernovae events as opposed to long held belief of single degenerate channel (WD-Main sequence star binary).