JAKARTA – Astronomers reveal a rare space phenomenon. This phenomenon shows a massive star that failed to explode and instead turned into a black hole.
As explained by NASA, this star is named M31-2014-DS1 and is located in the Andromeda galaxy. The galaxy is about 2.5 million light years from Earth.
Usually, a star with a large mass will end its life with a powerful and bright supernova explosion. However, NASA telescopes captured a unique occurrence from this star.
M31-2014-DS1 dims slowly until it finally disappears. Archive data shows that this star shone very brightly in infrared light in 2014.
However, entering 2023, the light produced appears to fade by more than 10,000 times. The researchers concluded that the increase in infrared light occurred due to the shedding of the star’s outer layers.
This happens because the star’s core has run out of fuel to withstand the enormous gravitational pressure. Supposedly, a powerful shockwave was triggered afterwards, but this failed to happen.
Instead of exploding, the star experienced a weak shock wave. This causes most of the star’s material to collapse into the interior of its core.
This density of material creates black holes without events such as supernovae. This phenomenon gives scientists a new picture of how black holes can be born in such a quiet way.
The study, published in the journal Science, is supported by years of data from NASA’s NEOWISE mission. Astronomers are now starting to look for other stars that may have a similar fate to M31-2014-DS1.
date:2026-02-13 12:05:00