A Survey About Nothing: Monitoring a Million Supergiants for Failed Supernovae

Understand

Extragalactic transient searches have historically been limited to looking for the appearance of new sources such as supernovae.

• It is now possible to carry out a new kind of survey that will do the opposite, that is, search for the disappearance of massive stars.
• This will entail the systematic observation of galaxies within a distance of 10 Mpc in order to watch ~10^6 supergiants.
• Reaching this critical number ensures that something will occur yearly, since these massive stars must end their lives with a core collapse within ~10^6 years.