1 . Scientists working in NASA say they have made a significant discovery that a huge star seems to have disappeared from the universe. The star is part of the Kinman Dwarf galaxy, pictures of which were taken in the past by a camera attached to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. But since the galaxy is so far away, researchers have not been able to clearly observe its stars. Astronomers had, however, identified important “signatures”, or signs, that the massive star existed. Now they are searching for answers to why it is no longer possible to see them.
A team of scientists from the European Southern Observatory reported it had been observing the star with its Very Large Telescope, VLT, for at least 10 years. The team said its observations repeatedly showed evidence that the Kinman Dwarf galaxy contained the massive star, which was estimated to be about 2.5 million times brighter than our sun. Researchers said the evidence suggested that the star was “in a late stage of its evolution”. They added that the star was a kind considered to be “unstable”. This means it could go through major changes in brightness or lose some of its mass.
Andrew Allan, the project’s leader, said the researchers wanted to learn more about how massive stars end their lives. The massive object observed in the Kinman Dwarf galaxy seemed like the perfect target. But when astronomers turned the VLT toward the distant galaxy in 2019, they could no longer find any signs of the massive star. “Instead, we were surprised that the star had disappeared,” Allan said in a statement.
The astronomers are now exploring two possibilities. The first is that the star might have become less bright and could be partly blocked by dust. The other possibility is that it collapsed into a black hole without producing a super powerful explosion.
The astronomers plan to keep observing the galaxy for signs of the missing star. They will likely need to wait a few years before confirming what happened to this particular star.
1. What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The stars. | B．The galaxies. | C．The signatures. | D．The astronomers. |
| A．It was once clearly observed. | B．It experienced a temporary change. |
| C．It could only be traced with the VLT. | D．It evidently existed in the distant galaxy. |
| A．It exploded. | B．It lost some of its mass. |
| C．It evolved into a black hole. | D．It was damaged by dust and became less bright. |
