A Star Curiously Vanished From the Sky Back in 2009 and Astronomers Might Finally Know Why

Amaze Lab

Back in 2009 astronomers noticed something a bit odd in the night sky, a star which has recently increased in luminosity suddenly disappeared. It was an odd observation as experts expected the star, which they believed was going supernova, to explode. Instead, it disappeared.

Transcript

00:00 Back in 2009, astronomers noticed something a bit odd in the night sky.

00:07 A star which had recently increased in luminosity suddenly disappeared.

00:12 It was an odd observation as experts expected the star which they believed was going supernova

00:17 to explode.

00:18 Instead, it was gone.

00:19 Now using the James Webb Space Telescope, they might finally have the answer as to where

00:23 the heck it went.

00:24 The star in question is called N6946-BH1 and astronomers initially believed it failed

00:30 when it began to supernova, instead becoming a black hole.

00:33 However, new data from the new telescope has revealed an infrared light source right where

00:37 the star used to be.

00:39 While this source could be the remnants of a star being sucked into a newly minted black

00:42 hole, the find is more consistent with a supernova explosion, one we didn't observe occurring.

00:47 And it gets weirder.

00:49 Astronomers actually found signs of three infrared remnant sources, leading to an entirely

00:54 new theory.

00:55 Rather than a supernova of a single star, they now theorize it was actually the merger

00:59 of an entire dual star system, with the sudden increase in luminosity likely being due to

01:04 the stars coming together to form a single one, then dimming once completed.

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