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.
Scientists used to be able to detect the huge star in the Kinman Dwarf galaxy, 75 million light-years away in the Aquarius constellation.
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
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.
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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...
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