Type Ia supernova
The pair are expected to merge into a single star in about 700 million years, whereupon they will explode in a Type Ia supernova. The inspiralling of the stars is caused by the emission of gravitational waves, resulting in the loss of orbital energy. The explosion is due to the combined mass of the merged star exceeding the Chandrasekhar limit of 1.4 solar masses. This is the first candidate for binary double white dwarf star merger progenitor Type Ia supernova star system known. The system is important to astrophysicists as Type Ia supernovae are used as standard candles to measure the distance to faraway objects, thus understanding the process is important to regularize and quantify the variations in the standard candle to reduce the error uncertainty in determining distance.