No constellation prize — Irish scientists ponder mystery of missing star

An artist’s impression of the disappearing star.

It may be the largest disappearing act in recorded history, and astrophysicists at Trinity College Dublin are trying to solve the cosmic mystery in a galaxy far, far away — where did the star 2.5 million times brighter than our sun go?

Professor Jose Groh’s team of astronomers at TCD discovered with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) that a mysterious massive star, located in the Kinman dwarf galaxy, has gone missing.