About every 113 days, a massive star 30 million light-years away flares so brightly it can look like it’s exploding. Then the light fades, and the star survives. Astronomers call it a supernova impostor. Between 2012 and 2026, they recorded at least 27 of its outbursts.
The clue was in the timing
Astronomers used the repeating pattern to point NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory at the star during an eruption in March 2026. It was at least 100 times brighter in X-rays than in earlier observations taken before the outbursts began. That gave researchers a way to explain why the flares kept coming back.
Their leading explanation is that the star has a companion in an elongated orbit. When the two objects come closest, the companion captures some of the material the star has shed. That material heats up and emits X-rays, which can make the surrounding gas glow brightly enough for telescopes to see.
The X-rays narrow the mystery to two suspects. The hidden companion could be a black hole or a neutron star, the dense remnant of a collapsed star. Astronomers are still working out which one.
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