There’s a star, LP 40-365, that appears to be the strange survivor of a failed supernova. Astronomers believe it was once part of a very tight binary system (likely with an orbital period of less than an hour), where a white dwarf began detonating as a classic thermonuclear supernova. But instead of being completely destroyed, as it should have been, the explosion fizzled halfway through leaving behind a partially burnt remnant instead of annihilating the star entirely. The result is a bizarre atmosphere covered in the ashes of incomplete nuclear burning oxygen, neon, and other elements that betray a combustion that never finished its job. On top of that, its…