Posterus: That's probably what they meant, but most white dwarfs are indeed in multistar (not binary) systems, simply due to the fact that most stars are in multistar systems.

They really need to have someone halfway scientifically literate proofread their stuff though, don't they?

"the brightness of a few dozen fireflies"

The authors of the paper and most of the readers of this article share something in common with this supernova.

"the brightness of a few dozen fireflies"

The authors of the paper and most of the readers of this article share something in common with this supernova.

Yeah, I would agree that you are one of "most of the readers of this article"

This is the first time that I've read an article here that used three different "units" to quantify a single phenomena in one paragraph:

"If the brightness of a standard supernova could be thought of as a single 60-watt light bulb, the brightness of this 2008 supernova would be equivalent to a small fraction of a single candle or a few dozen fireflies," Fisher noted.

Brilliant.

It was intended as a lighthearted barb to my detractors. Some are blinded by a dim light.

ROFLMAO. Who stepped on CantDrive85 and made him/her so antisocial?

I have an electrifying theory regarding CD85's tantrum...