The Final Frontier: The Dramatic Death of Stars and the Birth of Black Holes

Gravity, acting unrelentingly on a star’s mass, tries to collapse it. The outward pressure generated while the star burns its nuclear fuel balances the inward force of gravitational collapse. But when a star has exhausted its store of fuel, what then? Well, gravitational collapse is inevitable. The star’s end state depends on the mass with which it started. Low-mass stars can strike a different balance between outward pressure and gravitational collapse. High-mass stars can find no such balance, so gravitational collapse continues—the star becomes a black hole.