A massive star 2.5 million light-years away simply vanished — and astronomers now know why. Instead of exploding in a supernova, it quietly collapsed into a black hole, shedding its outer layers in a ...

In my January 23, 2026, “The Universe” column, I wrote about some of the biggest bangs the universe has to offer: exploding stars, hiccupping magnetars, stellar disruptions and colliding black holes.

The team discovered the star by analyzing archival data from NASA’s NEOWISE mission. They used a prediction from the 1970s that theorized that when a star underwent direct collapse, it would leave ...

A “disappearing” star in the Andromeda galaxy is the closest and best candidate for a newborn black hole that astronomers have ever seen ...

Scientists have captured the moment a supergiant star collapses into a black hole, revealing the star's death in an incredible animation.