Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to discover what drives the repeated ejections of material from a massive, unstable star. The star, known as AT 2016blu, is located in the spiral galaxy NGC 4559.
The galaxy is located approximately 30 million light-years from Earth. Despite such a great distance, Chandra managed to collect data that enabled astronomers to link the cause to the recurrence of the eruptions.
Star AT 2016blu has been described as unstable and prone to repeated ejections of material. It was precisely this behaviour that was the focus of the research — astronomers sought to determine what triggers it.
The image associated with this discovery was published on 9 November 2026, and the results are based on observations from NASA's Chandra Observatory.
