A Massive Star Brighter than Sun Disappeared and Scientists are Clueless!(Mysteries of 2020)

Another news that baffled us in 2020 is the sudden disappearance of a STAR! It was noticed a year back that the star 75 million light-years away from the Earth faded away without a trace. The entire scientific community was confused as the theory of the ‘Death of a star‘ tells us a different story. All of you might have studied in High School that a star takes millions of years to die. When the fuel of a star finishes, it slowly increases its size to become a huge red-coloured ball, commonly known as ‘RED GIANT’. Then it sheds its layers and shrinks to a very dense ‘white dwarf’.
This star was 2.5 million times brighter than Earth’s biggest star, Sun, and scientists studied it from 2001 to 2011. The star was reaching its end and attracting many scientists to experience the grand death of a majestic star. But, nothing took off as planned.

The illustration shows what the luminous blue variable star in the Kinman Dwarf galaxy could have looked like before its mysterious disappearance. (Credit: European Southern Observatory/L. Calçada)

For the first time, a star has died silently. It was a part of the ‘Kinman Dwarf Galaxy that’s in the Aquarius Constellation. Time for one more school lesson. A constellation is a group of stars that form different shapes in the sky. Cameras at NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope had captured images of the galaxy before the death of the star. Though the individual stars can’t be identified, NASA astronomers could detect the massive star in the galaxy.

In 2019, Andrew Allan, a doctoral student in astrophysics at Ireland’s Trinity College, and other researchers wanted to study a dying star and tried to focus on the distant gigantic star in Kinman Dwarf Galaxy. They were surprised to see that there was no sign of the huge spacial body. 
Whoa!!

While we are wondering where the huge star has gone, scientists have got a new, exciting topic to base their research on! 2020 is getting weird and we are learning more aspects of life. That’s evolution.

Stay happy, stay safe:)

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By Aditi Kapur

A freelance writer, blogger and influencer. My blog is a reflection of my thoughts. Join me in my journey to explore a diverse range of concepts.

10 comments

  1. This is such an interesting read! A star that died silently…the beyond has always intrigued the humans, hope the scientists find the mystery behind this star’s disappearance, as much as they surprise us with ever-unfolding facets of evolution!

  2. Omg!! The year 2020 seems to be mysterious indeed. Firstly I never knew such a star existed and now that its a mystery that it has disappeared, I am so curious to know about it.

    Wondering how you got so many interesting mysteries of this year!

  3. I am fascinated with stars. Your post was such an interesting read and made me realize I missed this piece of news, planning to read more on this.

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