Astronomers were puzzled by the sudden disappearance of a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) star in the Kinman Dwarf galaxy (PHL 293B), which is about 2.5 million times brighter than the Sun and about 75 million light-years away from the Earth, in the constellation of Aquarius. A team of researchers led by Andrew Allan of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, observed the galaxy to find out more about the death of very massive stars. They detected the absence of the signatures from this star using the ESPRESSO and X-shooter instruments of the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.
Astronomers found this giant LBV star by the astronomical observations from 2001 to 2011. During those observations, this star was 2.5-3.5 million times brighter than the Sun. However, in 2019, they could not find its traces anywhere. It seems to have disappeared in between 2011 to 2019.
Luminous blue variable (LBV) stars are rare super massive and unstable stars which exhibits incredibly unpredictable and dramatic variations in their luminosity and spectra. Kinman Galaxy is too far to observe it’s individual stars; but can detect the signatures from these stars.
A paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society last month, reports the mysterious disappearance of this giant star suddenly in 2019. According to this report, the scientists put forward two theories about how the star could have disappeared:
1. One possibility is that a giant outburst would have led to a mild drop in luminosity, a shift to higher effective temperatures, and some dust obscuration.
2. Another possibility is the collapse of the LBV to a Blackhole without the production of a bright Supernova, but possibly with a weak transient.
Massive stars like this one do not undergo slow death, but produce supernova blast before running out of fuel. Hence if the latter one is the cause, it will be the first known case in the evolution of a star. However, astronomers have to research further about what exactly happened to this giant star, and they are planning to do it with ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope.
Courtesy: ESO, BBC
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