For modern stars, we are uncertain as to whether the supernovae that create neutron stars are fundamentally the same or different than the ones that create black holes, and whether there is a 'mass gap' present between them in nature. Note that the first stars occupy the bottom row of the chart, being metal-free, and that the black areas correspond to direct collapse black holes. Supernovae types as a function of initial star mass and initial content of elements heavier than. The minimum mass of the final-state black hole could be many solar masses above the mass of the heaviest neutron star, which never forms an event horizon or crosses that critical threshold. If correct, then crossing that threshold and forming an event horizon could compel significantly more matter to wind up in the collapsing core, contributing to the eventual black hole. Although both arise from Type II supernovae, when the cores of the progenitor stars implode, whether you cross a critical threshold (or not) could make all the difference. According to some theoretical models, there is a fundamental difference between the supernova processes that wind up producing black holes and the ones that wind up producing neutron stars. Theoretically, there is disagreement about what ought to be out there as far as black hole masses go. end of its life, if the core is massive enough, the formation of a black hole is absolutely unavoidable. The anatomy of a very massive star throughout its life, culminating in a Type II Supernova. For some reason, all the known black holes were above some arbitrary mass threshold. There were no black holes with three or four solar masses worth of material. Even after LIGO turned on, revealing black holes merging with other black holes, one puzzling fact remained: the lowest-mass black hole we had ever discovered have all had masses that were at least five times the mass of our Sun.

We also know that only a fraction of the black holes out there are active at any given time most of them are probably quiet. We know that there are black holes that likely originated from supernova explosions, as the number of black holes in X-ray emitting, binary systems is now quite large. We now know that supermassive black holes lie at the centers of most galaxies, and feed on and devour gas regularly. Since that first discovery 55 years ago, the known population of black holes has exploded. NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope collaboration Binary black holes systems that emit X-rays are how the majority of our known non-supermassive black holes were discovered. They grow by accreting and devouring matter and energy, and when they actively feed they emit X-rays. Universe, galaxy, and star systems where they reside. Black holes are not isolated objects in space, but exist amidst the matter and energy in the.

The black masses game plot