The dusty aftermath of SN Hunt248: merger-burst remnant?

Understand

SN Hun248 was classified as a nonterminal eruption (a SN "impostor") from a directly identified and highly variable cool hypergiant star.

• The 2014 outburst achieved peak luminosity equivalent to that of the historic eruption of luminous blue variable (LBV) Eta Car, and exhibited a multipeaked optical light curve that rapidly faded after ~100 days.
• We report ultraviolet (UV) through optical observations of SN Hunt248 with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) about 1 yr after the outburst, and mid-infrared observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope before the burst and in decline.
• The HST data reveal a source that is a factor of ~10 dimmer in apparent brightness than the faintest available measurement of the precursor star.