• Question: how is black holes made

    Asked by anon-181894 to Leo on 26 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Leo Beacroft

      Leo Beacroft answered on 26 Jun 2018:

      Hey Tobias,
      I think it’s to do with when a star dies and it’s so big it collapses on itself and the gravity is so strong it pulls it all together and forms a black hole.
      Not all stars form black holes when they die though.
      That’s not a great explanation, sorry I’ll see if I can do better (it’s a while since I’ve done much astrophysics!).
      Thanks for your question though!

Comments

  • Photo: Liza

    Liza commented on :

    I think you’re right Tobias, only the really huge stars will form black holes – ones that are 8 times as heavy as our sun or more.

    These big stars die very suddenly when they run out of hydrogen gas fuel. They swell up into red supergiants which try to survive by burning other gases instead of the hydrogen. They can only sustain themselves like this for a few million years then blow up in a massive explosion called a supernova.
    The supernova produces a really bright light that lasts for about a week. Once this has faded, all that is left is the very tiny and dense object that Tobias is describing- the black hole or ‘neutron star’.