The Pistol Star was discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope in the early 1990s by Don Figer, an astronomer at UCLA.

The star is thought to have ejected almost 10 solar masses of material in giant outbursts perhaps 4,000 to 6,000 years ago (as observed from Earth).

Its exact age and future are not known, but it is expected to end in a brilliant supernova or hypernova in 1 to 3 million years.

[4] Later studies have reduced its estimated luminosity making it a candidate luminous blue variable about 1.6 million L☉ (one third as luminous as the binary star system Eta Carinae), hence a radius of 306 R☉ based on an effective temperature around 12,000 K,[7] or as high as 3.3 million L☉, hence a correspondingly larger radius of 420 R☉.

A close point source has been discovered hidden in the surrounding nebulosity, but there has been no confirmation of this being a star or whether it is physically associated.