Disappearance of a massive star in the Andromeda Galaxy due to formation of a black hole

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: De, Kishalay; Macleod, Morgan; Jencson, Jacob E.; Lovegrove, Elizabeth; Antoni, Andrea; Kara, Erin; Kasliwal, Mansi M.; Lau, Ryan M.; Loeb, Abraham; Masterson, Megan; Meisner, Aaron M.; Panagiotou, Christos; Quataert, Eliot; Simcoe, Robert
• 署名单位: Columbia University; Columbia University; Simons Foundation; Flatiron Institute; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); California Institute of Technology; California Institute of Technology; National Science Foundation (NSF); Harvard University; Princeton University
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adt4853
• 发表日期: 2026-02-12
• 页码: 689-693
• 关键词: LARGE BINOCULAR TELESCOPE; FAILED SUPERNOVAE; light curves; search; accretion; EVOLUTION; dust; progenitors; Explosions; transients

摘要

When a massive star reaches the end of its lifetime, its core collapses and releases neutrinos that drive a shock into the outer layers (the stellar envelope). A sufficiently strong shock ejects the envelope, producing a supernova. If the shock fails to eject it, the envelope is predicted to fall back onto the collapsing core, producing a stellar-mass black hole (BH) and causing the star to disappear. We report observations of M31-2014-DS1, a hydrogen-depleted supergiant in the Andromeda Galaxy. In 2014, it brightened in the mid-infrared, then from 2017 to 2022, it faded by factors of greater than or similar to 104 in optical light (becoming undetectable) and greater than or similar to 10 in total light. We interpret these observations, and those of a previous event in NGC 6946, as evidence for failed supernovae forming stellar-mass BHs.