One of the Largest Stars Ever Seen Just Pulled Off a Cosmic Plot Twist

New observations reveal that WOH G64, once assumed to be nearing a supernova, is still a red supergiant and may have been misdiagnosed all along. This enormous star, about 1,500 times the width of the Sun and up to 282,000 times brighter, is one of the largest ever observed. It lies approximately 163,000 light-years from Earth, in a neighboring dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way.

The star, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, had been dimming and shedding material, signs typically linked to a dying red supergiant transitioning into a yellow hypergiant. But a fresh study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society has challenged that assumption.

New Spectroscopy Data Changes The Story

A team of researchers led by astrophysicist Jacco van Loon of Keele University re-examined the star between November 2024 and December 2025 using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). The telescope’s high-powered spectroscope detected titanium oxide in the star’s atmosphere.

According to the study, this chemical signature contradicts earlier interpretations based on visible dimming and circumstellar dust, both previously seen as typical signs of a yellow hypergiant.

“This implies that WOH G64 is currently a red supergiant and may never have ceased to be,” said van Loon in a statement. He likened the finding to a “phoenix rising from the ashes.”

The initial belief that the star had begun its final transformation was also supported by a high-resolution image captured by the Very Large Telescope in Chile, which showed an “egg-shaped cocoon” of gas and dust around it. This led experts to assume the star had shed its outer layers in preparation for collapse. The SALT data now calls that conclusion into question.

A Hidden Companion May Explain It All

One of the most intriguing revelations of the new research is the possible presence of a binary companion. The study suggests WOH G64 could be in a system with a smaller, blue star, one powerful enough to gravitationally siphon material from its larger neighbor.

This interaction might be responsible for the strange cocoon-like structure seen in 2024. The team proposes that the star’s atmosphere is being distorted, not ejected, by the proximity of this companion.

“The atmosphere of the red supergiant is being stretched out by the approach of the companion star, but it has not been stripped altogether,” van Loon explained.

The idea of a companion star was not entirely new. It had been floated when the dusty cocoon was first discovered, but at the time, the theory failed to gain traction. This latest data, backed by long-term spectral analysis, provides a stronger foundation for revisiting that possibility.