A massive star 75 million light years away “vanished” and astronomers think it may be the first time they’ve seen one collapse into a black hole without going supernova first.
The blue variable star is located in the constellation of Aquarius, the Kinman Dwarf galaxy and its absence was spotted by astronomers using the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope (VLT).
It is an “unstable” type of star that is up to 2 million times brighter than the Sun. it vanished from view some time between 2011 and 2019, astronomers say.
One explanation is that the distant star has been obscured by dust, but another theory is that the star collapsed into a black hole without producing a supernova.
“If this theory is true then it would be the first direct detection of ‘such a monster star ending its life in this manner”, according to team leader Andrew Allan.
The researchers from Trinity College Dublin said further studies were needed to understand what happened to the star but they may have to wait until the European Souther Observatory Extremely Large Telescope comes online in 2025.
They said that if the star collapsed into a black hole without producing a supernova explosion, it would be “a rare event, as our current understanding of how massive stars die points to most of them ending their lives in a supernova”.
Between 2001 and 2011, various teams of astronomers studied the mysterious massive star, and their observations indicated it was in a late stage of its evolution.
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