UV-bright, faint X-ray sources hint at a new class of galactic binaries
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory found 84 faint, low-energy X-ray sources in six nearby galaxies that emit copious ultraviolet light, revealing a new class of hypersoft X-ray sources—compact binaries that could ionize galactic gas and illuminate the origins of Type Ia supernovae; the results, published in Nature Astronomy, may reshape our understanding of star formation and cosmic distance measurements.