Is a star missing? The James Webb Telescope may have discovered what

A giant star in 2009, It has a mass 25 times greater than our Sun. mysteriously disappeared. While it may not seem as simple as it sounds, it went through a phase where it glowed intensely, as if it were going to go supernova, reaching a brightness equivalent to a million suns.

But instead of exploding, the explosion subsided. The use of powerful telescopes such as the Large Binocular Telescope, Hubble and Spitzer were not sufficient to locate the star.

This star Search N6946-BH1 currently considered a failed supernova. The BH1 suffix indicates that it may have collapsed rather than launching a supernova. But until recent developments at the James Webb Telescope (JWST), this was just speculation.

A new research paper available on the arXiv preprint platform analyzes findings from the James Webb Telescope’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments. These findings point to a bright light source, possibly an envelope of dust remaining in the star’s early region. It may be expelling debris along with its intense glow, or even the glow of matter being drawn into a black hole; The latter is likely.

Interestingly, the researchers identified not just one ruin, but three different ones. This discovery challenges the previous theory of a failed supernova. Previous observations had loosely linked these three due to technological limitations.

Said, It seems more plausible that the explosion in 2009 was caused by the merger of two stars.. So what initially appears to be a single bright star may be a star system illuminated by the merger of two stars before dimming.

Although the evidence leans towards the stellar merger theory, the possibility of a failed supernova is not completely ruled out. Observations from LIGO and other gravitational wave detectors confirm that stellar-mass black holes exist and are not rare.

For this reason, although some massive stars appear as black holes, their ability to turn into supernova is indisputable. A supernova can release a lot of matter into a black hole. But understanding the origins of the deepest stellar black holes is difficult.

Considering that N6946-BH1 is located in a galaxy 22 million light-years away, the James Webb Telescope’s ability to identify multiple sources is remarkable. This technological advance increases astronomers’ enthusiasm for detecting similar stars in the future.

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