Nine Objects, One Plate, Zero Explanation — Until Now | Beatriz Villarroel

Could entire stars simply vanish?! One of the strangest mysteries in astronomy isn't about black holes or aliens. It's about stars that seem to disappear without a trace.

In this conversation, astronomer Beatriz Villarroel explains the VASCO (Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations) project and one of its most astonishing discoveries: **nine star-like objects that appeared and disappeared simultaneously on a single photographic plate**, long before the satellite era.

We cover:
• Why hundreds of "missing stars" had to be investigated one by one.
• The automated search pipeline developed by Enrique Solano to analyze decades of astronomical data.
• Why about 600 disappearing objects demanded closer inspection.
• The famous image containing nine transient objects that still challenges conventional explanations.
• What these discoveries could mean for astrophysics, observational astronomy, and the search for rare cosmic phenomena.

Watch the full conversation:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4jvdrN-FQw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4jvdrN-FQw)

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Brian Keating is Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego, a leading observational cosmologist, and Principal Investigator on the Simons Observatory. His research focuses on the Cosmic Microwave Background, inflation, and the origin of the Universe. On *Into the Impossible*, he interviews Nobel laureates, pioneering scientists, entrepreneurs, and thinkers exploring the biggest questions in science.

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