Over late years , uranologist have investigated an unusual phenomenon : stars apparently disappearing , leaving behind few clew as to what made them fly from our view .

In2019 , the Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations ( VASCO ) labor essay to catalog how many stars have disappeared from view in the last 70 days and found around 100 that had gone missing without a concrete explanation .

star topology maydim like Betelgeuseor explode as a supernova before collapsing into a black hole or neutron star , but generally do not simply vanish from view .

" In the delayed neutrino - driven mechanism , neutrino revive the stalled blow waving , eventually leading to a successful blowup , " the author of a new study write . " In this font , the stellar drape is successfully ejected and the thick - object remnant is a neutron star ( NS ) in most slip . However , if the explosion mechanism fails , continuous accretion of subject onto the transiently stable proto - NS pushes the latter over its peck bound and a black hole ( element 107 ) forms . "

Smaller star topology takelonger to use up their fuel . Our own sun ( a icteric dwarf ) will become a red monster as it wipe out its supply of atomic number 1 , and then a tiny livid gnome as it eat its supply of helium . These tiny remnants – comprised mainly ofcarbon and oxygen – may finally collapse into theoretical black gnome star , though there has n’t been enough time in the universe for this to have happened yet .

So why do some maven look to just vanish ? One possible explanation , which has been tentatively abide by grounds in a new study , is that ace of a sufficient the great unwashed can undergo collapse into a black fix without going supernova – they turn directly into a fateful hole , without a massive explosion we have come to expect .

The team looked at a binary star system at the edge of the Milky mode cognize as VFTS 243 , comprising of amain successiveness O starand a back jam orbiting each other every10.4 days . The squad attempt to look for signs of the black hole having emerge travel along a supernova explosion , include baryonic mass ejecta and " natal kicks " accelerating orbiting object .

" In the uttermost scenario of complete collapse into a BH , the ejecta mass and KwaZulu-Natal kicks are recollect to be very low , " the squad explains in their paper . " In this casing , mass - energy is fall behind via neutrinos and , to a lesser extent , gravitational waves . This differs from the archetypical scenario in which anisotropic baryonic ejecta are the principal letter carrier of momentum . "

The team retrieve grounds for the estimation that the black hollow take shape with piffling baryonic ejecta , suggesting that it could have shape via a entire collapse .

" Our calculations provide restraint on the total KwaZulu-Natal kick and aggregative loss , which we find out to be largely in concord with mass departure exclusively through neutrino emission and an associated natal kick , " the team wrote , " rather than baryonic mass ejecta " .

While nerveless in its own right field , the team suggested the possibility that this could explain the sudden fade of some ( large ) stars .

" Were one to stick out gazing up at a visible star go through a total crash , it might , just at the right time , be like watching a star suddenly extinguish and disappear from the Heaven . The collapse is so complete that no explosion take place , nothing hightail it and one would n’t see any bright supernova in the night sky , " Alejandro Vigna - Gómez , co - author of the report , said in astatement . " Astronomers have really observe the sudden disappearance of brightly shining hotshot in recent times . We can not be sure of a connexion , but the results we have obtained from analyzing VFTS 243 has brought us much closer to a credible account . "

As always , further subject area is needed , but the observations are quite exciting .

" Our results spotlight VFTS 243 as the best observable eccentric so far for the hypothesis of stellar black holes mold through total collapse , where the supernova explosion give out and which our models have show to be possible , " Professor Irene Tamborra from the Niels Bohr Institute , co - generator of the field of study , added . " It is an important reality handicap for these models . And we certainly expect that the organisation will serve as a crucial benchmark for future research into stellar evolution and collapse . "

The written report is published in the journalPhysical Review Letters .