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0 pointsvivekd5y ago0 comments

I wonder if this means there is something we are missing here. Like maybe there was a 10th star in the cluster long ago that for some reason is no visible to us today

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credit_guy5y ago

This is unlikely. A star can disappear if it goes supernova, or it implodes to become a neutron star or a black hole. The Pleiades are very close to us (astronomically speaking) at around 400 light-years. It would be virtually impossible for the remnants of a supernova at that distance to remain undiscovered, and also for a neutron star/ black hole to be so close to us and us not know about it.

For example the remnant of Tycho Brahe's supernova is at about 8000 light-years from us [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1572

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