New Study: Big Stars Can Disappear From The Sky Without Experiencing Explosions

Stars can die without exploding (photo: dock. ESO)

JAKARTA The entire star in the universe will not disappear when its period is over. After its lifetime ends, massive stars will explode and turn into supernovae. However, based on the findings of scientists, massive stars that fall into the old survey category cannot be found in recent surveys. These stars that seem to have died just disappeared and cannot be found in the night sky. Reporting from Sciencealert, a study undertaken by a group of scientists shows that some massive stars could die without explosions. This is evident after they observed a binary system called VFTS 243. The system in this Large Magellanic Cloud does not show a single sign of a supernova explosion. According to Astrophysical Expert Alejandro Vigna-G Waymez, who led the course of the study, massive stars could experience a collapse that made it suddenly quenched. "The collapse was so thorough that no explosion occurred, no one escaped, and no bright supernovae were seen in the night sky," said Vigna-Gomez. "(This) would be like watching a star that suddenly quenched and disappeared." The vigna-Gomez also explained that astronomers had observed the case of the disappearance of a star without a supernova explosion. There is not yet a definite answer to this phenomenon, but Vigna-Gammaz together with his colleagues believed with the results of the VFTS 243 analysis. In the process of its death, the collapse of the star did not always survive. Sometimes, non-equilibrium bursts of stars could eject supernova cores into space and would eventually disappear. Although many dead stars survive in the form of supernovae, the evidence from this group of scientists suggests that massive stars could collapse directly into the black hole. When this happens, a dead star will not become a supernova.

"We highlight VFTS 243 as the best observable case so far for the theory of stellar black holes formed through total collapse, where supernova explosions failed and our model has proven possible," said Astrophysicist Irene Tamborra. With the release of the results of this study, Vigna-G wayez, Irene, and other scientists hope that the VFTS 243 system could be a benchmark for other studies. Hopefully, this study can be used to observe the collapse of other stars.