The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.54 million light-years away from us, with a diameter of about 220,000 light-years and about 1 trillion stars. In this group of galaxies, this huge galaxy is considered to be the Milky Way’s “next-door neighbor”, and because of this, it has become one of the galaxies that scientists pay attention to when exploring the universe.
The Disappearance of a Star
This missing star is part of a larger survey of stars in the outer regions of Andromeda, which have been studied extensively using advanced telescopes. These observations, which have previously located and characterized this star, are part of a larger project to map the structure of the Milky Way and its stellar population. Researchers have been monitoring the life cycle of this star and the conditions of its surrounding region, as the outer edge of Andromeda is home to older stars that have already spent most of their lives.
However, in recent observations, according to a recently published study from MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, a star has disappeared from the Andromeda Galaxy “next door” to the Milky Way under scientists’ watchful eyes, named “M31-2014-DS1”. DS1”, as early as 2012, scientists noticed its existence, observation data show that ‘M31-2014-DS1’ is a supergiant star evolved to the ‘end of life’, its mass is about 6.7 times the mass of the Sun. Its mass is about 6.7 times the mass of the Sun. Considering that the star has lost a lot of mass during its past evolution, scientists estimate that its initial mass was much larger than that, estimated to be about 20 times the mass of the Sun.
It’s important to know that stars don’t just disappear in the universe. Typically, low-mass stars like Nebulae go out slowly, like a candle burning out, while intermediate-mass stars like the Sun expand into red giants, and then their outer layers evolve into planetary nebulae, with the remaining cores evolving into white dwarfs.
Massive stars with initial masses of more than eight times the mass of the Sun are even more spectacular – they say goodbye to the universe at the end of their lives with a “supernova explosion”. Such outbursts release as much energy in a short period of time as the Sun did during its 10-billion-year main-sequence phase (or even more), and are bright enough to illuminate the entire galaxy in which the star is located, with the remaining core evolving into a black hole or neutron star after the outburst.
Accordingly, a star like “M31-2014-DS1” should have undergone a “supernova outburst” at the time of its demise, but under the watchful eyes of scientists, the star didn’t explode with a bang, but disappeared without a trace! It disappeared. Why is this? Could this be the work of a legendary advanced civilization?
The speculation about the advanced civilization is really fascinating, we can not completely exclude this possibility, but from a scientific point of view, we should be more from the perspective of the natural formation of the explanation, how to explain it? Scientists have suggested that “M31-2014-DS1” could be a “failed supernova”.
Simply put, when the core of a massive star “nuclear fuel” is exhausted, because of the sudden loss of internal pressure and violent collapse, which will lead to an extreme increase in the density of the core of the star, so that the electrons and protons in the region combined into neutrons, and this process will release a large number of neutrinos (electron neutrinos).
These neutrinos are extremely dense and carry a lot of energy, which normally creates a powerful shock wave that “blows up” the outer layers of the star, causing a spectacular “supernova explosion”.
However, if the star’s outer layers are too “heavy”, the neutrino shock wave may not have enough energy to “blow” them away, in which case the star’s outer layers will be gravitationally pressed towards the core, until the core collapses into a black hole. In this case, the outer layers of the star are gravitationally pressed against the core until it collapses into a black hole, a phenomenon known as a “failed supernova”.
Possible Explanations. Supernova or Black Hole?
Astronomers are exploring several theories to explain the star’s disappearance. One of the most popular possibilities is that the star underwent a supernova explosion, a powerful stellar death event in which the star’s core collapses, releasing enormous amounts of energy and leaving behind a remnant, usually a neutron star or black hole. In simple terms, when the core of a massive star runs out of “nuclear fuel”, it collapses violently due to a sudden loss of internal pressure, which causes the density of the core of the star to increase so much that electrons and protons in the region combine to form neutrons, a process that releases a large number of neutrinos (electron neutrinos).
These neutrinos are extremely dense and carry so much energy that they usually form a powerful shockwave, which “blows up” the outer layers of the star, causing a spectacular “supernova explosion”. If this is the case, it would not be the first time that a star in Andromeda has undergone such a transformation, but astronomers still have questions about the exact nature of the explosion.
Another theory suggests that the star may have collapsed into a black hole, which would be harder to detect due to the absence of light. Black holes, by their very nature, do not emit any detectable radiation; instead, they absorb everything that falls within their event horizon, including light itself. This means that if the star collapses into a black hole, it may go undetected for some time, and its existence may be hidden in the complex dynamics of the galaxy’s star population.
Alternatively, some astronomers believe that the star may have simply escaped its previous location due to gravitational interactions with nearby stars or galaxies. Andromeda, like the Milky Way, has a complex gravitational structure that may have caused the star to “eject,” moving the star away from its original position. While this seems unlikely for such a prominent star, it could still happen.
In addition, this phenomenon could have implications for the study of other galaxies, both near and far. If stars can disappear or transform in unexpected ways, our models of galaxy formation, star birth, and cosmic evolution may need to be revisited.
The disappearance of this star in the Andromeda Galaxy is yet another puzzle that the universe has given us. It reminds us that despite the great strides humans have made in astronomy, the universe is still full of unknowns. Scientists will continue their quest in the hope of finding an answer, and the solution to this mystery may bring us new knowledge about the universe and even change our perception of it.
