It is a shame that Karin is unhappy about the coverage she received. New Scientist always tries hard to make its stories accurate and I thought the article itself dealt with the criticisms she has now raised. For example, I do not say that Karin discovered the system but that the system was discovered in 1993 and that Karin stumbled over it while studying for a college paper.
My understanding from talking to her, her supervisor Dave Latham and a third supernova researcher is that it is a very good supernovae candidate. We were not able to include further information about the evolution of this system because the third researcher wished to do more work before granting an interview.
As to whether or not 0.3 solar masses is "just shy" of the Chandrasekhar limit, make up your own mind. This was certainly the reason
the researchers themselves were excited by this system, and surely the job of a science reporter is to capture the excitement in an article.
Karin's final point is that the star will probably be well away from the Earth when it explodes. This too is made clear in my article.
