Can a star with high mass become a black hole?

If the star is greater than three solar masses, >3 M sun , then the ultimate cosmic extinction occurs: a Black Hole. Black holes originate as the high-mass star’s iron core collapses, just prior to the star going Supernova.

What mass is needed for a star to become a black hole?

2 to 3 solar masses
So, for a star with the same mass as our Sun, the Schwarzschild radius is about 3 km, or about 2 miles. In general, stars with final masses in the range 2 to 3 solar masses are believed to ultimately collapse to a black hole.

Can a star gain mass?

A: The quick answer to your question is yes, they can gain matter. However, only a small fraction of neutron stars can gain mass — those in binary systems, where mass is transferred from the companion star to the neutron star. Neutron stars in orbit around other stars are fairly rare.

How does a star turn into a black hole?

Most black holes form from the remnants of a large star that dies in a supernova explosion. (Smaller stars become dense neutron stars, which are not massive enough to trap light.) When the surface reaches the event horizon, time stands still, and the star can collapse no more – it is a frozen collapsing object.

How does a high mass star form a black hole quizlet?

How does a black hole form from a massive star? During a supernova, if a star is massive enough for its gravity to overcome neutron degeneracy pressure in the core, the core will collapse to a black hole.

When a star becomes a black hole?

When a star burns through the last of its fuel, the object may collapse, or fall into itself. For smaller stars (those up to about three times the sun’s mass), the new core will become a neutron star or a white dwarf. But when a larger star collapses, it continues to compress and creates a stellar black hole.

Do low mass stars become black holes?

Some smaller stars are big enough to go supernova, but too small to become black holes — they’ll collapse into super-dense structures called neutron stars after exploding as a supernova.

Do black holes retain mass?

Black holes of stellar mass form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed, it can continue to grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings.

What mass must a star have to be to become black hole?

Since the exact mass of an object like a star that must ultimately become a black hole is a function of its radius, there isn’t an exact mass above which that object must collapse to a black hole. Said another way, any object which collapses to the point where its radius is less than a certain limit must ultimately become a black hole.

Does a black hole come from a supernova?

However, if we let nature produce a black hole, the black hole that is produced at the end of a supernova explosion is actually significantly less massive than the star that it once was. Part of the drop in mass between star and black hole comes in the years before the supernova, when the star typically sheds a sizable fraction of its mass.

How does an object become a black hole?

Said another way, any object which collapses to the point where its radius is less than a certain limit must ultimately become a black hole. This radius is called the Schwarzschild radius (Rs), and it is given by the following equation: where M is the mass of the object, G is the gravitational constant, and c is the speed of light.

What happens to the mass of a star during a supernova?

During a supernova, a star blasts away its outer layers; this actually reduces the mass of the star significantly. Any star or planet has an escape velocity – the slowest an object must be traveling for it to escape the gravitational field of the star/planet.