Intermediate luminosity optical transient

An Intermediate Luminosity Optical Transient (ILOT) is an astronomical object which undergoes an optically detectable explosive event with an absolute magnitude (M) brighter than a classical nova (M ~ −8) but fainter than that of a supernova (M ~ −17). That nine magnitude range corresponds to a factor of nearly 4000 in luminosity, so the ILOT class may include a wide variety of objects.