The star suddenly disappears: the space telescope finds a surprise

The star becomes brighter and brighter before suddenly fading and disappearing. A new telescope now offers a surprising explanation.

FRANKFURT – A star 25 times more massive than our sun caught the attention of astronomers in 2009. It became as bright as several million suns, making it look as if it would explode in a supernova. Instead, its brightness decreased, until it could no longer be detected even with large telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope.

The mysterious disappearance of star N6946-BH1 continues to worry researchers today. The star is considered a “failed supernova,” and scientists suspect that it collapsed and became a black hole instead of exploding as a supernova. However, there has been no evidence of this yet. But now comes the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The telescope’s sharp infrared eye was directed at the area where the star had disappeared.

The James Webb Telescope makes a surprising discovery in the universe

Webb had a surprise for scientists: The star supposedly disappeared by Webb could still be seen in the infrared range – so it hadn’t completely disappeared. But the biggest surprise is something else: Webb found three infrared sources instead of just one.

In a study so far only On the advance print server arXiv published It has not yet been peer-reviewed. “We have shown for the first time that all previous observations of BH1 (before and after the disappearance) are in fact a combination of at least three sources,” the team of scientists wrote.

Disappearing Star: Apparently there were three stars

This makes the theory that the missing star was a failed supernova less likely. After all, it was apparently three stars, not just one. And with the new information, there’s also a new theory that researchers are now pursuing: Was there a stellar merger in 2009? This could explain the great brightness as well as the subsequent fading.