Three stars seen 71 years ago and then vanished are still being searched for!

It is still unknown where the three vanished stars went. However, an international group of researchers has proposed potential explanations for the mystery of the missing stars in a study that has not yet undergone peer review.

WHAT HAPPENED?

On July 19, 1952, the Palomar Observatory was taking multiple photographs of the same region of the sky to image objects like asteroids. Around 8:52 PM that evening, three clustered starlights were captured on film. The magnitude (brightness measurement) of the observed stars was measured at 15.

According to Independent Türkçe, in another photograph of the same part of the sky where the cluster was seen, taken at 9:45 PM the same night, the stars were seen to have disappeared.

Scientists continued to look at the sky later but could never see the cluster again. Stars can explode or experience short bursts, but they do not just vanish. However, the evidence was clear. The three stars were clearly visible in the first image but were absent in the second.

Accordingly, it could be assumed that the stars suddenly dimmed, but according to scientists, this is also an unlikely possibility.

Subsequent research also failed to find any evidence that the stars were dimmer than magnitude 24. This means that the stars dimmed by 10,000 times or more.

The latest study pursued the question of what caused the stars to dim so quickly.

First idea: It was not three stars, but a single star

According to the first possibility stated in the study, there were not three stars in the image, but one. Perhaps the star flared strongly for a short time. While this was happening, a stellar-mass black hole passed between that star and us, causing the flare to be captured as three images.

THE SECOND IDEA IS THAT THEY WERE NOT STARS

Another idea is that the observed group was not a star cluster.

The three bright spots are located 10 arcseconds apart from each other. If they are three separate objects, then something may have triggered their flaring.

Given the 50-minute time intervals in which the images were captured, the speed of light and causality indicate that the distance between these objects was no more than 6 astronomical units.

These point to the possibility that they could be Oort Cloud objects (a spherical, icy shell orbiting the solar system) that were caused to flare simultaneously by an event.

THIRD IDEA: THEY WERE NOT OBJECTS

According to the study, a third idea is that these were not actually objects at all.

The Palomar Observatory is located very close to the deserts of New Mexico, where nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the US.

Radioactive dust resulting from the tests may have contaminated the plates, creating bright spots in some images but not in others.

In their study, where they put forward possibilities regarding the missing stars, scientists express that they are not certain and underscore the need for further examination of the sky.