NASA Hubble’s Blue Lurker Mystery

Why is there a mysterious big blue star in a nearby star cluster? NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope recently discovered this blue lurker where it typically wouldn’t be found. Scientists believe it formed when two stars that were closely orbiting each other merged to form a red supergiant, which began to dump its excess material onto a third nearby star. This transformed this small, cooler star into a giant, hot blue star!