Hundreds of stars burst into black holes in the sky?

(NLDO) - A group of scientists have been searching for the truth about giant and brilliant stars that suddenly and mysteriously disappeared from the sky.

According to the widely accepted theory, stars have a finite lifespan and eventually die. It is a fiery death - called a supernova - in which the star explodes and shoots its contents out into space.

But scientists have found some massive stars that disappear without any sign of a supernova. They are clearly visible in older surveys, only to disappear completely in later surveys without any reasonable explanation.

Now, a pair of objects in a nearby galaxy may provide the answer.

The pair of objects VFTS 243 consists of a giant star and a mysterious black hole - Photo: ESO

According to Science Alert, the pair of objects targeted is VFTS 243 in the Large Magellanic Cloud - a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way galaxy containing Earth.

VFTS 243 consists of a black hole and a companion star. The system shows no signs of the supernova explosion that would have accompanied the formation of the black hole.

An international research team led by astrophysicist Alejandro Vigna-Gómez from the Niels Bohr Institute (Denmark) and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (Germany) has come up with the most convincing explanation yet: In addition to dying brightly, giant stars also have a sudden type of death.

“If a person were standing looking up at such a star that was about to collapse completely, at the right moment it could appear to suddenly go out and disappear from the sky,” said Dr. Vigna-Gómez.

So what happens to stars after they die?

According to theory, after a star first explodes as a supernova, its core collapses into a neutron star or a white dwarf depending on its size.

After some time, this neutron star or white dwarf may explode again, this time leaving behind only a black hole or a nebula.

According to the new model, giant stars are fully capable of "skipping stages", meaning that instead of exploding, the core - under the pressure of its own extremely strong gravity - collapses directly into a dark black hole.

The black hole in VFTS 243 could have formed like this. This black hole has a mass 10 times that of the Sun, and is associated with a 7.4 million-year-old star about 25 times the mass of the Sun.

New research has determined that the two objects orbited each other in a nearly circular orbit.

It is the clearest evidence yet that the black hole was not displaced from the position it existed as a star by a supernova explosion.

This means that the ancient star did not necessarily explode as a supernova, but only experienced a failed explosion. It is very possible that the rest of the star was also "cleaned up" by this suddenly formed black hole, leaving nothing visible in the sky.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/hang-tram-ngoi-sao-vut-bien-thanh-lo-den-tren-bau-troi-196240527124114381.htm