Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Astronomy

The star that would not die

Nature volume 551, pages 173–174 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

An event that initially resembled an ordinary supernova explosion continued to erupt brightly for more than 600 days. Standard theoretical models cannot explain the event's properties. See Letter p.210

When a star that has more than about eight times the mass of the Sun dies, it either collapses to a black hole or explodes as a supernova1. In the latter case, a blast at the centre of the star — usually caused by the formation of a stellar remnant called a neutron star — ejects the surrounding material at high speed. The expansion of this material releases trapped energy, providing a nearly constant luminosity (equivalent to that of about 100 million Suns) for roughly 100 days, before fading. Supernovae lasting more than 130 days are extremely rare2. On page 210, Arcavi et al.3 report that a supernova known as iPTF14hls glowed brilliantly for more than 600 days, making it the longest-lived bright supernova ever observed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: A pulsational pair-instability supernova.

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Smartt, S. J. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 47, 63–106 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Anderson, J. P. et al. Astrophys. J. 786, 67 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Arcavi, I. et al. Nature 551, 210–213 (2017).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Li, W., Wang, X. & Zhang, T. Astron. Telegr. 6898 (2015).

  5. Sukhbold, T. & Woosley, S. E. Astrophys. J. 820, L38 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Woosley, S. E. Astrophys. J. 836, 244–279 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Abbott, B. P. et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration) Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102 (2016).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, 95064, California, USA

    Stan Woosley

Authors
  1. Stan Woosley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stan Woosley.

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Astronomy: A turbulent stellar atmosphere in full view

Astrophysics: Elemental abundances across cosmic time

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Woosley, S. The star that would not die. Nature 551, 173–174 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/551173a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/551173a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing