Astronomers Document Rare 'Hiccupping' Star Before Supernova Explosion

The first-ever observation of Pulsational Pair Instability offers new insights into the life cycles of massive stars and their impact on the universe.

• Researchers observed a rare phenomenon called Pulsational Pair Instability (PPI) in a star 150 times the mass of the sun, marking the first confirmed instance of this theoretical process.
• PPI occurs when a massive star's core rapidly contracts and expands, ejecting shells of material that collide and produce bursts of light before the star's final supernova explosion.
• The event was documented using telescopes worldwide, with the star located in the spiral galaxy NGC 2981 and initially identified in December 2020 as supernova SN2020acct.
• A second burst of light was observed in February 2021, confirming the shell collisions and the star's core explosion, aligning with theoretical models of PPI.
• The findings, led by Queen's University Belfast and published in the Astrophysical Journal, represent a major advancement in understanding the behavior of massive stars and their role in shaping the cosmos.

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