Astronomers have expressed surprise and puzzlement over the discovery of a persistent and colourful shock wave emanating from a 'dead star' known as RXJ0528+2838. This white dwarf, the leftover core of a low-mass star, is located 730 light-years from Earth and orbits with a Sun-like companion star. The phenomenon, observed using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) and its MUSE instrument, manifests as a 'bow shock' – a curved arc of glowing material similar to the wave in front of a ship. The colours detected in the bow shock represent elements like hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. The central mystery lies in the fact that RXJ0528+2838, a discless accreting white dwarf, should not, according to current astrophysical models, be producing such a powerful and long-lasting outflow. Normally, strong outflows and subsequent shock waves in binary systems are fueled by material forming an accretion disc around the white dwarf, which then gets ejected. However, this particular white dwarf shows no signs of such a disc. Scientists, including co-lead authors Simone Scaringi from Durham University and Krystian Iłkiewicz from the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, stated that finding "something never seen before and, more importantly, entirely unexpected". The size and shape of the bow shock indicate that this powerful outflow has been ongoing for at least 1,000 years. While the white dwarf is known to possess a strong magnetic field that channels material directly from its companion without forming a disc, this mechanism alone is not sufficient to explain the shock wave's longevity, suggesting a yet-unidentified energy source, which Scaringi calls a 'mystery engine'. This groundbreaking discovery, published in Nature Astronomy, significantly challenges the standard understanding of how dead stars interact with their surroundings and how binary star systems evolve over cosmic time, paving the way for further research with instruments like the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope.