## “We found something never seen before” – A dead star is producing a shock wave that shouldn’t exist Stars can produce powerful shock waves when gas and dust streaming away from them collide with material in the surrounding space. Astronomers have now captured a striking example around the dead star RXJ0528+2838 using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT). The discovery is puzzling because, based on known mechanisms, this small stellar remnant should not be capable of producing the structure seen around it. The unexpected finding challenges current ideas about…