Black holes are thought to form when supermassive stars more than five times the mass of the Sun run out of hydrogen fuel and die. When this happens, the iron core at the center of the star implodes under its own gravity in a supernova. The outer layers of the star are blasted into space in one of the most energetic events in the universe. Not all supernovae result in black holes though. If the mass of the core is large enough, [[Chandrasekhar limit|about 1.2 times the mass of the Sun]], the leftover gravity of the shrinking core stalls the outward rush of the initial blast, and crushes the core into a point of infinite gravity: a black hole. This rare event is known as a hypernova and is even more energetic than a supernova. | Black holes are thought to form when supermassive stars more than five times the mass of the Sun run out of hydrogen fuel and die. When this happens, the iron core at the center of the star implodes under its own gravity in a supernova. The outer layers of the star are blasted into space in one of the most energetic events in the universe. Not all supernovae result in black holes though. If the mass of the core is large enough, [[Chandrasekhar limit|about 1.2 times the mass of the Sun]], the leftover gravity of the shrinking core stalls the outward rush of the initial blast, and crushes the core into a point of infinite gravity: a black hole. This rare event is known as a hypernova and is even more energetic than a supernova. |