Are black holes still stars?

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.)

How long does it take for a star to become a black hole?

This process could take a long time, maybe a million years or more depending on how quickly it accretes the material. Once the neutron star is over the mass limit, which is at a mass of about 3 solar masses, the collapse to a black hole occurs in less than a second.

What star will turn into a black hole?

What kinds of stars end up as black holes? They are the natural consequence of the evolution of massive stars. Neutron stars have an upper mass limit of 2 to 3 solar masses. A collapsed object of greater mass will continue to collapse indefinitely, forming a black hole.

Can a white dwarf become a black hole?

No chance of a black hole. A White Dwarf is a star whose mass was insufficient to collapse to form a black hole at the end of its life when fusion ceases. The electrons with the nucleus would collapse but not to the extent that electrons would combine with protons to form neutrons.

Is the sun going to become a black hole?

No, our Sun is much too small to become a black hole. As it exhausts its hydrogen fuel, our Sun will start burning helium, swell in size and briefly become a red giant (giant in size, though not in mass), probably exceeding the size of the orbit of Venus.

What is the size of the black hole?

This stellar black hole is estimated to be more than 12 billion years old, with a mass greater than 20 billion suns and could be expanding at a rate of around 1 percent every 1 million years. Despite its old age, the huge object is gulping up its surroundings like a growing lad.

Could a super-massive black hole wipe out life on Earth?

If the super-massive object were located in our galaxy it would wipe out life on earth with the X-ray beams emanating from its core, explain astronomers from the Australian National University (ANU). Black holes come in all shapes and sizes: from tiny objects as small as an atom to behemoths that scale up to 20 times more than the mass of the sun.

What happens when a star is sucked into a black hole?

The black hole is surrounded by a ring of dust. When a star passes close enough to be swallowed by a black hole, the stellar material is stretched and compressed as it is pulled in, releasing an enormous amount of energy. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 5. What would happen if you fell into a black hole? It certainly wouldn’t be good!