[duckerude]

It's already used that way for unpacking, e.g.

  >>> [x, *other] = range(10)
  >>> x
  0
  >>> other
  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

So this instance of the syntax is not that novel. If it's a mistake, it's too late to fix it.

A unary asterisk before a name means the name represents a sequence of comma-separated items. If it's a name you're assigning to (LHS) that means packing the sequence into the name, if it's a name you're reading from (RHS) that means unpacking a sequence out of the name.

[heavenlyblue]

You can also do [a, * b] when constructing a list so that b would be injected into that list after a - makes total sense.