Pearce
Jedi Master
A Massive Star Has Disappeared Without a Trace
An unusually bright star has gone missing, in a mystery of cosmic proportions.
gizmodo.com
An unusually bright star in a nearby galaxy has gone missing, in a mystery of cosmic proportions.
An object inside the Kinman dwarf galaxy has disappeared from view, according to new research published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. This massive and exceptionally bright blue star was hypothesized to exist based on astronomical observations made between 2001 and 2011, but as of 2019, it is no longer detectable.
The authors of the study, led by PhD student Andrew Allan of Trinity College Dublin, have conjured two possible explanations: Either the star has experienced a dramatic drop in luminosity and is now partially hiding behind some dust, or it transformed into a black hole without sparking a supernova explosion. If it’s the latter, it would represent just the second known failed supernova.