This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A distant star has captured astronomers' attention over the past decade, teasing them with indications that it will soon explode as a supernova. But new research shows that something else entirely is behind the star's outbursts.
Rather than an impending catastrophic explosion, a previously unseen companion may be responsible for the star's behavior. The star is named AT 2016blu and is about 29 million light-years away (about 170 trillion miles). It's an enormous star, about 33 times as massive as the sun.
Stars this massive end their lives in brilliant supernova explosions, leading astronomers to think that an explosion was imminent. But new research to be published in The Astrophysical Journal outlines what's actually happening with AT 2016blu. The research is titled "AT 2016blu: Accretion-Powered Outbursts in a Luminous Blue Variable and Compact Object Binary," and is currently available at arXiv.org.
The lead author is Mojgan Aghakhanloo, an astronomer at the University of Virginia. AT 2016blu is a luminous blue variable star discovered in 2012. It exhibits periodic outbursts that are very supernova-like.
Since its discovery, it has erupted 27 times. While astronomers now know that not every supernova experiences pre-explosion eruptions, many do, so they rightly thought that AT 2016blu was an impending supernova. But as time went on, many questioned that interpretation.
This isn't Aghakhanloo's first research into AT 2016blu, which has earned the nickname "supernova impostor." Papers published in 2023 and 2025 also focused on the impostor. That research suggested that a binary system was responsible and that no supernova explosion was coming. But it left many unanswered questions.
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