Giant star’s sudden shift stuns astronomers

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2026 — Astronomers say the enormous star WOH G64 in the Large Magellanic Cloud has undergone a rare change, shifting from a red supergiant to a yellow hypergiant in 2013–2014, Reuters reported after a new Nature Astronomy study summarized the decades-long observations, Nature Astronomy press release said.

Researchers reviewed more than 30 years of brightness measurements and spectra and found the star became warmer and more yellow after a period of dimming, signaling a rapid evolutionary phase rarely caught in real time, Nature Astronomy press release reported.

A rare stellar transition

WOH G64 is one of the largest known stars, with a radius roughly 1,500 times that of the sun, and it sits about 160,000 light-years away in the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, The Conversation and EarthSky reported.

A 2024 image from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer revealed a dusty cocoon around the star, evidence that it has been shedding mass as it evolves, Phys.org reported.

Why it matters

Massive stars live short, violent lives, but scientists still debate whether stars of WOH G64’s size end as supernovae, collapse directly into black holes, or pass through brief yellow-hypergiant phases first, Reuters said.

The study outlined two main scenarios: interactions in a binary system could have triggered the red supergiant’s atmosphere to be ejected, or the star might have been a yellow hypergiant that appeared red for decades before reverting, Nature Astronomy press release reported.

What comes next

Spectral data suggest WOH G64 has a companion star, raising the possibility of future interactions or even a merger that could reshape its fate, Reuters said.

Astronomers also point to a potential pre-supernova “superwind” phase that could explain the observed shedding of outer layers, a hypothesis that would make WOH G64 a rare laboratory for late-stage stellar physics, The Conversation noted.

Continued monitoring of the system could clarify how the most massive stars die and whether WOH G64 is on the verge of a dramatic end, EarthSky reported.

How we report: We select the day’s most important stories, confirm facts across multiple reputable sources, and avoid anonymous sourcing. Our goal is clear, balanced coverage you can trust—because transparency and verification matter for informed readers.