"A̶l̶l̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶m̶a̶s̶s̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶s̶ Most very massive stars that go supernova leave a black hole behind."
You read that right: Not all very massive stars leave behind black holes after going supernova. What compact object do they leave behind then?? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Stars more massive than ~20 solar masses end their lives in a supernova, usually leaving behind a black hole (BH). This is because when stars explode in a supernova, the gravitational pressure is high and pulls all the matter back in to collapse in on itself, leaving behind a BH.
At ~130-250 solar masses, stars start pair production (ie, producing free electrons and positrons). This adds thermal pressure! So when it goes supernova, gravitational collapse can't counter the pressure, so it explodes and leaves behind NOTHING but the elements it forged.
Further up the mass scale, stars more massive than 250 solar masses will entirely skip the supernova phase and directly collapse into a black hole. Massive stars are weird!
Where are these stars? Stars >100 solar masses form in gas clouds almost exclusively made of hydrogen and helium; more massive ones cool gas in stellar nurseries, causing them break apart and only make lower mass stars. Our Universe is metal enriched, so these can't form today.
So, today we learned:
Some of the most massive stars explode and leave NOTHING behind, while those more massive still are just too massive to exist and directly undergo gravitational collapse into a black hole. BUT THE FACT THAT THEY EXPLODE INTO NOTHING IS JUST... WHOA!!
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