The other night I was looking at the stars on the sky, and there was one star shining really bright compared to the others. But suddenly after a while, the light in it started to fade, and eventually the starlight disappeared. What happened? It faded rather quickly, in about four-five seconds. It can't have exploded or anything, right? 'Cause it didn't go from shining to gone in a blink, it took a few seconds as said...
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The fading could be a few different things. Some possibilities (although unlikely, because you didn't mention any movement) could be a distant airplane near the horizon (was it low in the sky?), with its landing lights on, slowly turning away from you until the landing lights were no longer visible, but this would not look like a stationary object unless it was very distant and close to the horizon. It would also be unmistakably bright if you were in a direct line with its landing light. Are you within 20-30 miles of an airport?
A satellite moving directly away from you, would appear to fade without moving, but the chance alignment of this sighting would be very rare. This possibility would be easy to confirm or eliminate if you told us your location, and the direction in the sky you were looking, satellite sighting opportunities are listed on several websites, and are very thurough.
More than likely, however, it was a star being covered by a thin layer of clouds. Especially if the object you were looking at showed zero motion and was high up in the sky.
Still, it would be helpful to know your location, the time, direction, and altitude above the horizon, to get a more definitive answer (or to rule out other possibilities).
A satellite moving directly away from you, would appear to fade without moving, but the chance alignment of this sighting would be very rare. This possibility would be easy to confirm or eliminate if you told us your location, and the direction in the sky you were looking, satellite sighting opportunities are listed on several websites, and are very thurough.
More than likely, however, it was a star being covered by a thin layer of clouds. Especially if the object you were looking at showed zero motion and was high up in the sky.
Still, it would be helpful to know your location, the time, direction, and altitude above the horizon, to get a more definitive answer (or to rule out other possibilities).
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Although some stars vary in brightness, none of them change as quickly as you describe. What you saw might be an Iridium satellite: a telecommunications satellite whose antenna reflect sunlight causing it to appear to flare. Or it might be a star passing behind a cloud: it is often hard to see clouds in the dark night sky.
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it could have possibly been an effect of gravitational lensing...maybe a black hole came past a source of light magnifying it, then slowly dimming as it completely passed that background light source.
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A cloud probably covered it up. How clear was the sky?
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Maybe it was Venus?