For a star to take shape a black hole , the thinking was that they had to go supernova first . A new discovery , however , may drive a rethink , hinting at a antecedently unobserved event .
This discovery is a star called N6946 - BH1 , found 22 million easy - years away in the NGC 6946 galaxy . It ’s nicknamed the “ Fireworks Galaxy ” because we have seen so many supernovae there .
But scientists from The Ohio State University found something peculiar . Using the Large Binocular Telescope ( LBT ) in Arizona , they acknowledge that N6946 - BH1 , which was 25 times more massive than the Sun , dimmed out of existence between 2009 and 2015 . The findings were published in theMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society .
Using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope , they attempted to find the star in its last known position after it had dimmed from view . But they found nothing there , not even evidence that it was being obscured by a dust cloud . The whiz had plainly go away without a bang .
This may be the first evidence for what ’s called a betray supernova . While most massive stars are think to explode before becoming black fix , 30 per centum may really just collapse directly into being a dim hole .
“ The typical view is that a star can imprint a dark mess only after it extend supernova , ” Christopher Kochanek , professor of uranology at The Ohio State University and a carbon monoxide - author on the discipline , pronounce in astatement . “ If a wizard can hang short of a supernova and still make a black hole , that would help to explicate why we do n’t see supernovae from the most monolithic sensation . ”
This particular star had become 1 million clip more lucent in 2009 as it neared the remainder of its life , which suggested it was about to go supernova . But it then became six times fainter in a matter of months , before later disappearing from view .
The scientists think that the mass might be cardinal . It could be that the star was so massive , it simply did n’t have meter to go supernova before its essence collapsed . This may link up into how very monolithic black golf hole human body – it may be that it ’s easier to form more monolithic black holes without an accompanying explosion .
If this turns out to be the lawsuit for N6946 - BH1 , this would be the first bomb supernova we ’ve ever find . We ’ve seen star explode all over the blank space , but it seems some may also simply vanish from position in a monumental gravitational flop .
