Instead of loosing brightness over the course of a few months, as expected, its brightness has been fluctuating greatly during 2 years, in a way which is hard to explain. In a new paper in the journal Nature, led by Iair Arcavi (Las Cumbres Observatory, USA) observations of iPTF14hls are presented, along with attempts to explain the supernova. Among the co-authors are Jesper Sollerman, Francesco Taddia, Ragnhild Lunnan, Anders Nyholm and former PhD student Christoffer Fremling from the Department of Astronomy. The Nordic Optical Telescope has been important in the follow-up of iPTF14hls.

A longer description is available from the Oskar Klein Centre.

This picture of iPTF14hls (at the arrow) was taken in October 2017 with the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma. The host galaxy looks like an irregular, blue bar. The image field of view is about 6 arc minutes (1/5 of a lunar diameter in the sky) on each side. Colour image composite made by Francesco Taddia.
This picture of iPTF14hls (at the arrow) was taken in October 2017 with the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma. The host galaxy looks like an irregular, blue bar. The image field of view is about 6 arc minutes (1/5 of a lunar diameter in the sky) on each side. Image processing: Francesco Taddia.