Distant star has VANISHED without a trace – and panicked scientists don’t know where it went
A MASSIVE star in a distant galaxy has baffled astronomers by disappearing without a trace.
Scientists have been observing the star for decades as it was in the late stages of its lifespan meaning a huge supernova explosion could happen.
It was observed shining brightly between 2001 and 2011 but 2019 data revealed its absence.
Confused by how such a big star could mysteriously disappear, scientists looked back at data from 2016 and found the star was also missing back then.
Somehow, it seems to have disappeared sometime after 2011.
Now, scientists are wondering whether the star skipped the supernova stage, previously thought to be a necessary step in the end of a star's life.
Instead, they think it could have just collapsed into a black hole.
said: "If true, his would be the first direct detection of such a monster star ending its life in this manner."
Scientists used to be able to detect the huge star in the Kinman Dwarf galaxy, 75 million light-years away in the Aquarius constellation.
We don't currently have the technology to observe individual stars at this distance but scientists used to be able to pick up light signatures for the luminous blue variable star in question.
These stars are known supergiants or sometimes even hypergiants that are approaching the end of their lifespan.
This makes them extremely unstable and bright, with constant changes in brightness expected.
Early observations suggested the star was 2.5 to 3.5 million times as bright as the Sun.
This is what makes the star suddenly disappearing without even a trace of a supernova very strange.
Researchers have come up with two possible explanations for the mystery disappearance.
The first is that the star has dimmed and is now shrouded in a huge cloud of dust made from its own eruptions.
In the second scenario, the star went through its final death throws and collapsed into a black hole.
We can't rule out that the massive star underwent an undetected supernova but it's highly unusual that it wouldn't leave an after glow for years to come.
said: "We may have detected one of the most massive stars of the local Universe going gently into the night."
The research was led by PhD student Andrew Allan of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
This study has been published in the .
What is a supernova?
Here's what you need to know...
- A supernova is a powerful and bright stellar explosion
- It occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf goes into runaway nuclear fusion
- The original object collapses into either a neutron star or black hole, or is completely destroyed
- The "peak luminosity" of a supernova is comparable to an entire galaxy, before fading over several weeks or months
- Just three naked-eye supernova events have been observed in the Milky Way during the last thousand years
- The most recent of which was Kepler's Supernova in 1604
- A supernova remnant is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova
- It is bounded by an expanding shock wave
- And it's made from ejected material expanding fromm the exposion, and interstellar material it sweeps up along the way
Most read in Science
In other news, Nasa has released a hypnotic time-lapse video of the Sun.
Alien life may be lurking in hidden Earth-like ocean on nearby Jupiter moon Europa.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
And, mysterious signals have been coming from space for over 500 days and scientists aren't sure why.
Are you an avid stargazer? Let us know in the comments...
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]