The story of a co-orbiting system that was once home to three stars was quite chaotic, as Hubble data reveals.

About 500 million years ago, two of the stars merged to form a more massive star. After its lifetime, this new star evolved into a massive white dwarf.

The third star in the system absorbed matter from the merging star, increasing its mass and brightness. But now it continues to orbit a star that has completed its life.

Image description:

Illustration titled “Evolution of the Blue Lurker Star System”. It contains six boxes in two rows of three. The upper left shows the large circular path of a star surrounding a small circular path of two rotating stars. The top center box shows two stars orbiting each other, indicated by blue lines, and a third star in the distance. The upper right box shows a large, fiery orange star with a feed line to another distant star. The bottom left box shows a small yellow star surrounded by a ring of pale red gas on a black background. The bottom center box shows a white box around the yellow star. The lines extend from this small box to the lower right panel, showing a large, fiery yellow star. The inscription “Artist's Concept” is at the bottom right.

Image credits: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)