"*" and the other quantifiers ("+", "?" and "{...}") operate on the preceding _item_, not the entire preceding expression. For example, "ab*" means "a" followed by zero or more repeats of "b".

You're not allowed to use multiple quantifiers together. The proper way is to use the non-capturing "(?:...)".

It's too late to change that because some of them already have a special meaning when used after another quantifier: "a*?" is a lazy quantifier, as are "a+?", "a??" and "a{1,4}?".

Many other regex implementations, including the "regex" module, use an additional "+" to signify a possessive quantifier: "a*+", "a++", "a?+" and "a{1,4}+".

That just leaves the additional "*", which is treated as an error in all the other regex implementations that I'm aware of.