"Astronomers have started monitoring about a million massive stars to see if any suddenly vanish, seemingly without a trace. Such a disappearing act would support a theory that some massive stars simply implode when they die, rather than exploding in brilliant supernovae or gamma-ray bursts.
As a massive star ages, it accumulates iron in its core. Eventually, this iron core grows so massive that it is crushed by its own gravity, forming a black hole.
Sometimes the process is accompanied by a supernova, when the star's outer layers explode outwards to produce a brilliant flash of light at visible wavelengths. In rare cases, black hole births are even more spectacular, with the star firing out powerful jets of high-energy radiation as it dies - a phenomenon known as a gamma-ray burst.
But as many as half of black hole births may happen more stealthily, with no explosion to mark the event. A new survey led by Christopher Kochanek of Ohio State University in Columbus, US, may detect these events by watching massive stars suddenly wink out."
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