How Much Mass Makes A Black Hole? Astronomers Challenge Current Theories

[Moontanman]

How Much Mass Makes a Black Hole? Astronomers Challenge Current Theories

 

 

ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2010) — Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, European astronomers have for the first time demonstrated that a magnetar -- an unusual type of neutron star -- was formed from a star with at least 40 times as much mass as the Sun. The result presents great challenges to current theories of how stars evolve, as a star as massive as this was expected to become a black hole, not a magnetar. This now raises a fundamental question: just how massive does a star really have to be to become a black hole?

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100818085938.htm