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February 13, 2026
from
RT Website
© Getty Images/buradaki
Scientists say
a failed
supernova resulted
in a quiet
transformation of
a
once-bright massive star...
A star in the
Andromeda galaxy 13 times the mass
of the Sun has quietly turned into a
Black Hole after failing to go
supernova, according to a new
scientific paper.
Massive stars can become Black Holes following a supernova, a
spectacular cosmic event. At the end of their life cycle, when
nuclear fusion in the core can no longer counteract gravity, it
collapses.
The resulting shockwave expels the outer layers.
The core either turns into a Black Hole immediately or forms a
neutron star that can later pull in more mass and collapse.
A team led by Columbia University astronomer
Kishalay De believes a far less
dramatic Black Hole birth that was not accompanied by a supernova
was recorded by NASA's NEOWISE mission in our neighboring galaxy 2.5
million light-years away.
The theory explains how star
M31-2014-DS1,
brightened in infrared in 2014, dimmed
sharply in 2016, and nearly vanished by 2023...
In a paper (Disappearance
of a massive star in the Andromeda Galaxy due to formation of a
Black Hole) published Thursday in Science magazine,
the researchers argue that in this case, ejected matter lacked
sufficient velocity to escape the new Black Hole's gravity.
Location and disappearance
of M31-2014-DS1
© Science
"Ten years ago, if someone said a 13 solar-mass star would turn
into a Black Hole, nobody would believe that," De told Space.com.
"It was completely outside what was
considered the norm."
Black Holes are so massive that even light cannot
escape them.
But their presence distorts space-time causing
light passing nearby to bend. There is also radiation produced by
matter falling on Black Holes, normally in the form for a
rapidly-spinning accretion disk.
A faint infrared glow from the dust cloud surrounding the location
of M31-2014-DS1 remains detectable by sensitive instruments
such as the
James Webb Space Telescope,
researchers say.
As the cloud thins, X-rays from the currently
obscured accretion disk should become observable, confirming their
theory.
"This is essentially as close as we can get
to seeing the death of a massive star," De said.
"In the end, I think it teaches us a lot more
about stellar physics by not exploding."
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