Star Exploded, Survived, and Exploded Again More Than 50 Years Later (IMAGE)

Carnegie Institution for Science

Star Exploded, Survived, and Exploded Again More Than 50 Years Later

Caption

An image taken by the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey reveals a possible explosion in the year 1954 at the location of iPTF14hls (left), not seen in a later image taken in 1993 (right). Supernovae are known to explode only once, shine for a few months and then fade, but iPTF14hls experienced at least two explosions, 60 years apart.

Credit

Adapted from Arcavi et al. 2017, Nature. Credit: POSS/DSS/LCO/S. Wilkinson.

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