'Zombie' star survives 3-year supernova

CALIFORNIA, U.S.A — A three-year-long supernova is making astronomers reconsider how stars form and die.

Designated as iPTF14hls, the supernova was first detected in 2014. It located is half a billion light years from Earth in the Ursa Major constellation.

Scientists theorize the original star was so hot it may've created antimatter at its core, reports the BBC, forcing it to become unstable and explode.

This could lead to the supernova repeating until it eventually tears a hole in space-time and becomes a black hole.

Findings concerning the supernova were described in the journal Nature.