This star erupted in 2009. It was thought at first to be a supernova, hence the name SN 2009ip. However, it erupted few times since then. In September 2012 it went through a major outburst, proposed to be a supernova by some researchers. We, Soker & Kashi (2012), proposed instead that the major outburst was actually a merger of two very massive stars. A short popular summary of this idea was published in New Scientist.
נועם סוקר