Astronomers have discovered a so-called "zombie" star -- the first star to explode multiple times

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'Zombie' star won't die, even after exploding

It may be the most massive and is the longest-lasting supernova ever observed
(CNN) It's the star that won't die, even though it has exploded and appeared to go down in a blaze of glory multiple times. This superlong supernova may be the first of its kind.

When they first observed supernova iPTF14hls in September 2014, astronomers at Las Cumbres Observatory in California thought it was perfectly normal. They analyzed the light of the explosion to study the material ejected and its speed.

But Zheng Chuen Wong, an intern at the observatory from the University of California, Santa Barbara, noticed something strange about the supernova and showed it to Iair Arcavi, a NASA Einstein postdoctoral fellow at the university.

A supernova, the massive explosion of a star, usually signals the end. Typically, a supernova remains bright for 100 days before fading. But this one fluctuated by brightening and dimming over the course of 600 days, according to a study released in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/11/08/us/zombie-star-survives-supernova/index.html