A Quiet Stellar Death

An interesting article in New Scientist (Astronomers begin search for 'vanishing' stars) discusses a theory among some astronomers and astrophysicists that some stars, instead of dying in massive supernovae or gamma ray explosions, instead just sort of blink out of existence. Some evidence (see also the April 2008 New Scientist article, Heavy stars may go out with a whimper, not a bang) suggests that certain types of stars may not have an explosive end. The current research proposed will help determine whether this is the explanation for the anomalous data.