Now You See it, Now You Don't: Massive Star Goes Out With a Whimper Instead of a Bang
This pair of visible-light and near-infrared Hubble Space Telescope photos shows the giant star N6946-BH1 before and after it vanished out of sight by imploding to form a black hole. The left image shows the 25 solar mass star as it looked in 2007. In 2009, the star shot up in brightness to become over 1 million times more luminous than our sun for several months. But then it seemed to vanish, as seen in the right panel image from 2015. A small amount of infrared light has been detected from where the star used to be. This radiation probably comes from debris falling onto a black hole. The black hole is located 22 million light-years away in the spiral galaxy NGC 6946.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and C. Kochanek (OSU)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | N6946-BH1 |
| Object Description | Disappeared Star in NGC 6946 |
| R.A. Position | 20h 35m 27.56s |
| Dec. Position | +60° 08' 08.29" |
| Constellation | Draco |
| Distance | 22 million light-years (6.7 megaparsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Data used to produce the images are from HST proposals (PI: M. Meixner, STScI) and (PI: C. Kochanek (Ohio State Univ.) |
| Instrument | HST>WFPC2, WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | July 8, 2007, October 8, 2015 |
| Filters | WFPC2>F606W (wide V ), July 8, 2007 (1,600 seconds) WFPC2>F814W, July 8, 2007 (1,600 seconds) WFC3/UVIS>F606W (wide V), Oct. 8, 2015 (1,233 seconds) WFC3/UVIS>F814W, Oct. 8, 2015 (1,233 seconds) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFPC2 and WFC3/UVIS instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Two filters in each instrument were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are cyan: F606W and orange: F814W. |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
