Stars disappear mysteriously: New study suggests direct black hole collapse

In recent years, astronomers have shown increased interest in stars disappearing from our field of view without a clear cause. The VASCO project from 2019, which aimed at cataloging instances of stars that have vanished over the past 70 years, identified around 100 such objects. Typically, stars do not disappear overnight but gradually fade away, like Betelgeuse, or explode as a supernova, ultimately collapsing into a black hole or neutron star.

An international team led by astrophysicist Alejandro Vigna-Gómez from the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany conducted research that sheds new light on this phenomenon. In the article published in the journal Physical Review Letters, experts suggest that stars of appropriate mass can collapse directly into a black hole without undergoing a supernova explosion phase. Previous knowledge about the formation of black holes always assumed the violent phenomenon of a supernova as an intermediate stage.

According to IFL Science, evidence for this has been found in a binary system called VFTS 243 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, on the outskirts of the Milky Way. It consists of a black hole and a companion star, which orbit each other every 10.4 days. According to known models, this system shows no signs of a supernova explosion, which should accompany the formation of a black hole. This may explain the disappearance of stars for unexplained reasons. Despite these promising observations, experts emphasize the need for further research to confirm their assumptions.

The research results suggest that the disappearance of some stars could be a direct result of fully collapsing into black holes, in a process where the emission of neutrinos and, to a lesser extent, gravitational waves dominate over the massive ejection of matter. "Our observations have allowed us to understand better how black holes can form through complete collapse without the star exploding as a supernova," explained Alejandro Vigna-Gómez, one of the study's authors, in a press release.

Astronomers have observed such disappearances so far, which brings us closer to understanding some of the most mysterious phenomena in the universe. This work, as emphasized by Professor Irene Tamborra, from the Niels Bohr Institute and co-author of the study, represents an important confirmation of theoretical models. It is expected to become a key reference point in future studies on the evolution of stars and their collapse.