Unveiling the Nature of SN 2011fh: a Young and Massive Star Gives Rise to a Luminous SN 2009ip-like Event.

In recent years, many Type IIn supernovae have been found to share striking similarities with the peculiar SN 2009ip, whose true nature is still under debate. Here, we present 10 years of observations of SN 2011fh, an interacting transient with spectroscopic and photometric similarities to SN 2009ip. SN 2011fh had a M$_r \sim -16$ mag brightening event, followed by a brighter M$_r \sim -18$ mag explosion in August 2011. The spectra of SN 2011fh are dominated by narrow to intermediate Balmer emission lines throughout its evolution, with P Cygni profiles indicating fast-moving material at $\sim 6400 \ \textrm{km s}^{-1}$. HST/WFC3 observations from October of 2016 revealed a bright source with $\textrm{M}_{F814W} \approx -13.3$ mag, indicating that the star might be going through an eruptive phase five years after the bright explosion of 2011. Using HST photometry of the stellar cluster around SN 2011fh, we estimated an age of $\sim 4.5$ Myr for the progenitor, which implies a stellar mass of $\sim 60$ M$_\odot$. VLT/MUSE observations show that the source is located in a star-forming region with an oxygen abundance of $12 + \textrm{log}_{10}(\textrm{O/H}) \approx 8.39$. We also show that the progenitor of SN 2011fh exceeded the classical Eddington limit by a large factor in the months preceding the bright explosion of 2011, suggesting strong super-Eddington winds as a possible mechanism for the observed mass-loss. These findings favor an energetic explosion in a young and massive star, possibly a luminous blue variable.