Is the universe a minefield?…‘quietly formed’ black hole discovered in the Andromeda Galaxy

A star that transformed into a ‘black hole’ without triggering a massive explosion at the end of its life has been discovered. This is the first ti...

Transition to a black hole without a powerful outburst of ‘light emission’ Illustration of the star ‘M31-2014-DS1’ in the Andromeda Galaxy. Provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration A star that transformed into a ‘black hole’ without triggering a massive explosion at the end of its life has been discovered.

This is the first time the existence of such a black hole has been confirmed in the universe, suggesting that quietly formed black holes may be scattered throughout space beyond Earth. A U.S. research team led by scientists at Columbia University announced on the 12th that in the Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light-years from Earth, they had found a star that turned into a black hole without a supernova explosion accompanied by intense light emission. The findings were published in the international journal ‘Science’. The star discovered by the team is named ‘M31-2014-DS1’. The team analyzed space observation data captured from 2005 to 2023 by the NEOWISE space telescope operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . They found that M31-2014-DS1 brightened abruptly in 2014, then suddenly dimmed markedly in 2016, and by 2023 its brightness had dropped to one ten-thousandth of the original, effectively vanishing. Cross-checks with other instruments confirmed that this was not simply starlight obscured by cosmic dust, but a genuine disappearance from the universe. The team interpreted M31-2014-DS1 as having transformed into a black hole that draws in all matter, including light. In general, black holes arise when a star more than 20 times heavier than the Sun can no longer sustain hydrogen fusion. A massive star that has reached the end of its life as a star undergoes a supernova explosion that momentarily emits intense light, and then becomes the ‘ultimate in gravity’, that is, a black hole that draws in all surrounding matter. However, in this case M31-2014-DS1 is light for forming a black hole. Its mass is only 13 times that of the Sun. Even so, it became a black hole and skipped the usual formation route of a giant explosion. This is the first time such a case has been clearly demonstrated through observation in the universe. If the results hold, black holes could be far more numerous in the universe than expected. The team plans further studies using state-of-the-art observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope. They intend to analyze dust around the black hole to calculate the energy released at the time of collapse.

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