A star appears to have collapsed straight into a black hole without supernova

Massive Star Goes Out With a Whimper Instead of a Bang (Artist's Illustration) This illustration shows the final stages in the life of a supermassive star that fails to explode as a supernova but instead implodes under gravity to form a black hole. From left to right: the... NASA, ESA, and P. Jeffries (STScI) Astronomers have watched as a massive, dying star was likely reborn as a black hole. It took the combined power of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), and NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to go looking for remnants of the vanquished star, only to find that it disappeared out of sight. It went out with a whimper instead of a bang. The star, which was 25 times as massive as our sun, should have exploded in a very bright supernova. Instead, it fizzled out—and then left behind a black hole. A team of astronomers at The Ohio State University watched a star disappear and possibly become a black hole. Instead of becoming a black hole through the expected process of a super ... Read full article.