Black holes are among the most exciting phenomena in the universe. They are thick and have a powerful gravitational pull that not even light can flee their clutches (Tillman et al., 2022). Wise et al. (2019) acknowledge that the formation of supermassive black holes in the centers of giant galaxies is yet unknown. Direct-collapse black holes are attractive seed candidates since they are the remains of supermassive stars with masses roughly 10,000 times that of the Sun (Wise et al., 2019). Stars die and become black holes, neutron stars, or white dwarfs (Northwestern, n.d.). During their dying days, these stellar graveyard denizens can conceal significant implications about star formation history in the galaxy (Northwestern, n.d.). Stars continue to shape the evolution of the environments in which they live through dynamic relations and the enrichment of interplanetary space.
The death of a massive star may result in a formation of a black hole. Croswell (2020) claims that a massive star, like the Sun, turns hydrogen into helium at its core throughout its existence. When the hydrogen runs gone, the helium burns, releasing carbon and oxygen into the atmosphere. As a result, frantic to support its massive weight, the star taps its carbon, converting it to neon, sodium, and magnesium. Carbon burns at such high temperatures that the extreme heat produces high-energy photons, which may then be converted into pairs of electrons and antielectrons (Croswell, 2020). These normally annihilate each other and can create neutrinos and antineutrinos, speeding out of the star, depriving it of energy and leading it to collapse.
Nevertheless, whether the star explodes or implodes is mainly determined by how it spends its carbon at its core. Carbon, for instance, does not burn convectively in higher-mass red supergiants, limiting neutrino losses and resulting in a more expanded core surrounded by dense material (Croswell, 2020). Thus, when the core falls, the blast wave collides with the thick material above, causing the explosion to fail; instead of exploding, the star implodes, becoming a black hole.
References
Croswell, K. (2020). Inner Workings: A massive star dies without a bang, revealing the sensitive nature of supernovae. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(3), 1240–1242.
Northwestern. (n.d.). Black holes and dead stars.
Tillman, N. T., Dobrijevic, D., & Biggs, B. (2022). Black holes: Everything you need to know.
Wise, J. H., Regan, J. A., O’Shea, B. W., Norman, M. L., Downes, T. P., & Xu, H. (2019). Formation of massive black holes in rapidly growing pre-galactic gas clouds. Nature, 566(7742), 85-88.