In 2009, a giant star 25 times more massive than the Sun disappeared from space, but new research may have an answer to what really happened.
According to the British “The Sun”, the star known as N6946-BH1 has puzzled scientists since 2009, as it went through a period of brightness, as happens in a supernova, and its brightness increased to a million suns, and then it faded after that instead of exploding, according to available technology. at that time.
When astronomers tried to view the star using the Large Binocular Telescope, Hubble and the Spitzer Space Telescope, they couldn’t see anything.
However, scientists have now been able to analyze the available data thanks to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and its instruments.
The study, published on September 28 on arXiv, found a new theory about what may have happened.
Before the new data, scientists suggested that N6946-BH1 may have collapsed into a black hole or that it was a failed nova.
New data shows that there are three bright sources where the star is located, and scientists now believe that the star was caused by a star merger.
They explained that what looked like a bright star about to go supernova in 2009 was actually a star system that shines when two stars merge together.
After the stars merge together, they return to normal, which explains why they “disappear.”
Although the data revealed new information, scientists are still unable to provide an accurate explanation of what happened to the star.
New images taken by the telescope using infrared imaging show a young star spewing out colored gas faster than sound.
NASA explained that the colors are formed “when stellar winds or gas jets are released from these newborn stars and form shock waves that collide with nearby gas and dust at high speeds.”
