A massive star ends with a spectacular supernova. With this explosion, only its remains remain in space. Scientists have discovered that some massive stars have just ended, and there is no trace left in the sky without their explosion. It is surprising that how can stars end without a supernova?
A recent study published in Physical Review Letters by a team directed by Alejandro Vigna-Gómez, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany and the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark, shows that some massive stars die quietly rather than with a massive explosion.
They discovered VFTS 243, a binary system in the Large Magellanic Cloud that consists of a black hole and a companion star. Current theories suggest that the black hole should have been formed before a supernova explosion, yet this system shows no such thing.
Astronomers have indeed observed sudden disappearances of brightly-lit stars in recent times. The results from the analysis of VFTS 243 seem to provide a clear picture of this. When a star with a mass of about 8 times that of the Sun goes supernova, the results are chaotic. A black hole, neutron star or extremely dense object is formed when a star’s core collapses due to gravity, depending on the initial star’s mass.
Another new aspect has been added to the story of the end of the star. (Symbolic picture: Shutterstock)
The VFTS 243 system is quite interesting. It is made up of a giant star that is about 25 times the mass of the Sun and 7.4 million years old, as well as a black hole that is about 10 times larger than the star.
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The data suggests that massive stars can sometimes collapse directly into black holes without going through a supernova. The strongest evidence of this has been found in VFTS 243. It remains to be seen whether this is considered an exceptional event or whether scientists will make some changes in the definition of the end of stars.
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FIRST PUBLISHED : May 25, 2024, 17:33 IST