Astronomers have discovered a "zombie star," the surviving remnant of a dwarf star left behind by a faint supernova.

The zombie star was what remained of a white dwarf star that engulfed all the energy of its companion blue star.

This process caused a nuclear reaction that released a weak supernova blast, changing the white dwarf into a zombie star.

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Saurahb Jha of Rutgers University said that the type Ia's are important because they're used to measure vast cosmic distances and the expansion of the universe.

They named this weak supernova phenomenon SN 2012Z. It resides in its host galaxy NGC 1309, which is 110 million light-years away.

Curtis McCully, one of the researchers, said they were very surprised to see anything at the location of the supernova.

He said they were expecting it to be like their previous searchers of other normal Type Ia supernovas.

Astronomers believe the unusual nature of SN 2012Z is caused by a seesaw battle between the bigger and smaller star pair.

They said the more massive star evolved more quickly to expand and dump its hydrogen and helium into another smaller star. In this case, the smaller star to bulk up, grew larger and engulfed the white dwarf star.

To date, astronomers have identified more than 30 mini-supernovas that leaved behind a surviving white dwarf.

They located another supernova blast 69 million light-years away in galaxy UGC 12682, more than four years after it exploded.

Images captured by the Hubble Telescope suggest the object found in the supernova could be a zombie star or a companion star.

Well, this seems to prove a zombie apocalypse can also occur in space.