Astronomers have observed a rare cosmic event: a massive star that bypassed the typical supernova explosion and instead collapsed directly into a black hole.
The star, designated M31-2014-DS1, is located in the Andromeda Galaxy, approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth, according to NASA. This discovery offers a new perspective on black hole formation, a process that has long fascinated scientists.
Typically, stars with substantial mass end their lives in a spectacular supernova, a powerful and bright explosion. However, data captured by NASA telescopes revealed a unique scenario with M31-2014-DS1.
The star gradually dimmed until it disappeared entirely. Archival data showed that it was exceptionally bright in infrared light in 2014. By 2023, the light emitted had faded more than 10,000-fold. Researchers concluded that the increase in infrared light was due to the shedding of the star’s outer layers.
This occurred as the star’s core had exhausted its fuel to counteract immense gravitational pressure. Normally, this would trigger a powerful shockwave, but that didn’t happen in this case.
Instead, the star experienced a weak shockwave, causing most of its material to collapse inward toward its core. This density created a black hole without the typical supernova event. The findings, Columbia University researchers explained, provide a new understanding of how black holes can form quietly.
The study, published in the journal Science, was supported by years of data from NASA’s NEOWISE mission. Astronomers are now searching for other stars that may share the same fate as M31-2014-DS1. The star originally weighed around 13 times the mass of our sun, as noted in Space.com.
“This star used to be one of the most luminous stars in the Andromeda Galaxy, and now it was nowhere to be seen,” said Kishalay De, a professor at Columbia University and an associate research scientist at the Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute. “Imagine if the star Betelgeuse suddenly disappeared. Everybody would lose their minds! The same kind of thing was happening with this star in the Andromeda Galaxy.”
