Overview
- Archival NEOWISE data show the source brightened around 2014 before its light fell off sharply within about three years, leaving only faint infrared emission.
- Hubble and large ground-based telescopes detect weak infrared glow from heated dust and fallback gas consistent with material accreting onto a newborn black hole.
- The team estimates the star began at roughly 13 solar masses but shed about 60% of its mass through winds, collapsing at around five solar masses.
- Researchers interpret the event as a failed supernova in which the collapse-driven shock was too weak to eject the outer layers, leading to direct black-hole formation.
- The results, published in Science by Kishalay De and colleagues, suggest many black holes may form without bright explosions and will guide long-term monitoring and targeted searches for similar disappearances.