Transients in the sky: Stellar puzzle
In 2004, astronomers observed an incredibly bright stellar flare. Then two years later, they spotted a type 1b supernova in the same vicinity. Researchers now confirm that the two events occurred in the same place, making it an unlikely coincidence and something of a puzzle.
Andrea Pastorello and colleagues offer a few explanations. The initial flare could have come from a Wolf–Rayet star — a very hot, massive, dying star that throws out a lot of gas. Or it could have come from a binary system, containing the supernova and a luminous blue variable — a bright, hypergiant, variable star that flares periodically. The authors’ conclusions support another publication by an independent group in the journal Astrophysics (R. J. Foley et al. Astrophys. J. 657, L105–L108; 2007).
CONTACT
Andrea Pastorello (Queen's University Belfast, UK)
Tel: +44 28 9097 3509; E-mail: a.pastorello@qub.ac.uk