It's one of the brightest stars known, but where did it come from?

A mysterious star three million times brighter than the sun has set astronomers off on a detective hunt, as they try to figure out why the star sits in a region of space on its own.

Experts are puzzled because such hot, bright stars seem to form most easily in clusters. Scientists are unsure whether this star formed in isolation from any others, or if it was somehow ejected from a cluster of stars.

An international team of astronomers has been studying the star, VFTS 682, using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. Their results show that the star is 150 times more massive than the sun, with a surface temperature of around 50,000°C, which is 44,500°C hotter than our sun!

It is possible that VFTS 682 was ejected from a cluster, but such ‘runaway stars’ are usually much smaller, so it would be unusual for such a large star to be affected this way.

Hit play on the video below to see a cool animation showing the star’s position in space.

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