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2w ago

Astronomers Watch Andromeda Star Vanish, Pointing to Quiet Black Hole Birth

A Science study interprets the fading as a failed supernova, a view challenged by a peer-reviewed merger alternative.

An illustration of a star that collapsed, forming a black hole without an explosive supernova event, where it's surrounded by a dust shell moving away from the unseen black hole at the center and gas being pulled toward it, in this image released on February 12, 2026. Keith Miller, Caltech/IPAC – SELab/Handout via REUTERS.
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These images show the location (and disappearance) of M31-2014-DS1. (A) is a color composite. The area in the yellow dashed square is the region shown in images (B), (C), and (D), where (D) is the difference between (B) and (C). Images (E) through (J) are zoomed-in shots of the star taken in the labeled years. Credit: NIR Keck image
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Overview

  • M31-2014-DS1 in the Andromeda Galaxy brightened in mid-infrared in 2014–2015, then rapidly dimmed from 2016 and was essentially gone in optical and near-infrared by 2022–2023, leaving only a weakened mid-infrared source.
  • Researchers report in Science that the event most likely produced a roughly five–solar-mass black hole, with the star’s outer layers gently expelled and forming dust that re-emits in the mid-infrared.
  • The team’s model invokes convective outer layers and decades-long slow accretion to explain the lingering infrared glow after the star’s core collapse.
  • The case rests on multi-instrument records from NEOWISE, Hubble, Spitzer, ground-based facilities, and later JWST and Chandra observations obtained in 2024.
  • A competing MNRAS study argues the data fit a dust-shrouded stellar merger, and astronomers say continued JWST/Chandra monitoring and future Rubin and Roman surveys should distinguish scenarios because a merger should keep radiating whereas a true black hole will keep fading as the dust thins.